Out with the Old - In with the New: A Kronos WFC Maintenance Tip

Happy New Year!

It is time to start out with a fresh, clean slate. This applies to your Kronos System(s) as well. You will be amazed at how much temporary stuff is out there cluttering up your system.

Many times we make backups whenever there is a problem, or before we perform an upgrade. I was recently on a system and found copies of every service pack that had ever applied to the system for multiple versions and some of the backups that went along with them. By just deleting these files I freed up gigabytes of much needed space!

When there is a problem with the Workforce system we generate many logs in debug mode (extra verbose). We put these in different directories for further analysis. Most times these stay around way longer than needed. If you have log backups from previous years, I am certain that you will not be looking at them again. Get rid of them.

Upgrades or service pack applications can also cause us to use up extra room. Sometimes people make backups of the entire Kronos directory “just to play it safe” before applying something new. This is not a bad practice by any means (I actually encourage it), however after the new “thing” is applied and an appropriate amount of time has gone by without incident, the backup directory should be deleted.

Database backups are usually maintained and managed by system DBAs and stored off site. I usually tell people they cannot have enough backups; “It all depends on how much stuff you are willing to re-enter” I say. As a precaution, many times we make intermittent backups of the database before we make changes. We store these backups locally so if needed, they can be quickly restored without waiting to be rolled back, or retrieved from storage. Are you really ever going to load a backup of a system three service packs ago from last year? Do you really need to retain quick access to it from the local hard drive? These should be deleted.

I will not delve into the world of interfaces (Workforce Connect or Workforce WIM) too deeply here, but I am willing to wager that you have way more copies of every interface on your production servers as well. Go ahead, take a look. While there, check out some of the old error logs that are still hanging about. I know a bunch of you will tell me that you are using retention policies in the newer versions of Workforce Central and it handles everything automatically. Please humor me and go take a look at your directories any way.

It is not that keeping all this stuff is bad; it is just too much. It slows us down. When we have duplicated directories, there are just too many places to look for stuff and then you have to figure out if you have the right version of whatever it is you found. The newly provided extra space may be taken advantage of by the system allowing it to run faster. The extra hard disk space may not only help your system run faster, it could be used to possibly house a separate instance of the system. This would allow you to experiment with implementing something totally new.

I shudder to think what would happen if my wife reads this and then looks at my office...

Now, about that email in-box…

Hope your New Year is a happy one!

Jeffry