Databases
It is best to install your OASIS database on a hard drive that has plenty of available space. Depending on the size of your office and the amount of attachments you plan to store in OASIS, we recommend anywhere from 25 GB to 100 GB of free space for medium-sized groups. If you notice your disk space dwindling, consider adding more space before the drive reaches capacity.
Backups
We cannot stress enough the importance of a reliable, verifiable, routine backup system. The database should be backed up daily, and the integrity of those backups should be verified periodically. OASIS has a built in daily backup so you should plan to have either a second physical hard drive for the backup to be directed to or have a RAID array to add a layer of protection in the event of a hardware failure.
There is nothing more frustrating than finding that your backup is not useful when the server crashes. It has happened before and we have shared in the frustration. We will be here to help restore your data, but this may result in hours or days of downtime.
Web Hardware and Software
The OASIS Web products assume a web server and a high quality, well-secured LAN. This often involves a DMZ with a dedicated web server and VLANs for security. Before implementing these technologies, please call customer support. Regardless, a local LAN specialist is highly recommended if these technologies are to be implemented at the local agency.
General Guidelines for Best Performance
- If your office wants to go as paperless as possible, attaching files and drawings, etc will cause the size of the OASIS database to grow exponentially. Plan ahead for this by having plenty of free hard drive space for future growth.
- Attachments/ storage of documents, transactions, emails, etc within OASIS is only limited by the amount of hard drive space on the server (or PC used as server) and the page size of the database.
- Hard disk performance on the server is VERY important. Internal server bus speed is also important for large offices. Using a quality RAID card and 10K RPM drives will result in better performance and stability. This is recommended for larger companies. Note: standard 7200 RPM drives are not recommended.
- Allocating more RAM to the server will result in better performance than allocating more processing power to the server. However, adding memory after 8 GB will not result in a noticeable performance increase unless the database is larger than 500 GB.
- USB 3.0 is highly recommended on the server. In the event of a database recovery from an external backup drive, a USB 3.0 drive will move data up to 5 times faster than a USB 2.0 drive.
- More modern operating systems will use more memory, but will run faster overall.
- Databases like SAP SQL Anywhere (used in OASIS) will tend to compete for resources when run with other applications like email servers (i.e. Microsoft Exchange), other database servers, and web servers. For best results, it is best to host the OASIS database on either its own dedicated hard drive or on a RAID array where the I/O load is shared.
Common Issues Concerning Desktop systems Running OASIS:
- Out-of-date printer drivers may result in OASIS print failures or garbled print from time to time. There have been some issues with Windows 7 and printers. Consult your IT person for updates and printer driver issues.
- Some network adapter drivers are not optimized for use with OASIS. One of the common problem settings is for energy efficiency, which will turn off the network adapter to save power. This will slow OASIS performance.
- We have encountered several different antivirus programs that will analyze EVERYTHING that is transmitted to and from your machine. In ALL cases this will slow down OASIS, as it is a client/server application that transmits a great deal of data over the network. Consider adding exceptions for OASIS.
- Using Roaming Profiles in Active Directory to store user profiles remotely on a server can cause OASIS to run very slowly, depending on how it is set up. Contact customer support for information on how to bypass this issue.
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