By Kyle Knebel
March 2023 Consultants Corner
Are You Missing Files? Are Your documents missing images, orphaned, or missing text indexes? – Use the Consistency Checker.
A Laserfiche repository is a database and file content in its most basic structure. The file content is stored in “Volumes.” The database is constantly tracking the files that are in the Repository. Theoretically, all documents, either imaged or electronic, listed in the Repository and viewable through the Laserfiche Client will be correctly stored and never be missing from those Volumes. This is because these two components are usually in synch. However, for various reasons, some documents may become “inconsistent.”
For Laserfiche administrators, the Repository Consistency Checker application is a small but powerful Laserfiche software tool that can help identify where a Laserfiche repository’s SQL database might not be synchronized with the file system.
Why could these inconsistencies happen? It could be somebody manually making file deletions on the storage server where the Volume files are located. Or it could come from Backups that are missing files after having used a backup to restore a system. Again, using the Consistency Checker is an excellent way to validate an existing backup.
The utility has no install files; you just run the executable. There is a 23-bit version and a 64-bit version, depending on your Laserfiche server’s operating system. Run the “RepositoryConsistencyChecker.exe” file from the appropriate folder, and it would be best if you ran it on the Laserfiche Server.
Upon request, you can obtain the application from the Laserfiche Support site or our CDI support desk.
The introduction page will give you some notes and instructions. Please follow them exactly, including a complete backup of BOTH the database and volumes to be repaired.
Please note that the best and quickest way to perform a consistency check will be with the Laserfiche Server Service stopped. Running a check when the server is running drastically reduces end-user performance.
Next, you’ll choose the desired Repository to run the utility against.
Then, you’ll choose one or more Volumes to scan.
The Mode should be selected next, and even if you run the “Check Only” option, you can run a repair after seeing the results.
Since Thumbnails are typically found on image pages (TIFF files), this can be a significant number of files. Of course, thumbnails can always be regenerated, but if you let the utility scan for thumbnail inconsistencies, your report could be quite large. Therefore, the default setting is to “Ignore Thumbnail.”
Clicking the “View Report” button will give you a list of scan results and a summary table of information for all selected and scanned Volumes.
If you find errors, you can check the box to “Start repair when Next is clicked.”
If you run the repair step, you’ll get a results screen to view a recovery information report.
Then click Next to finish the process.
That concludes this month’s article about the Laserfiche Consistency Checker. As a Laserfiche Administrator, running this utility every month or so will help you keep your data Consistent!
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