ContactReview :: View topic - Does creating a new database increase capacity? etc?

JimGunther · GoldMine Journeyman

My GM 6.7 seems to be slowing down lately. (I have over 400,000 Names in my database - LOTS of dupes 'tho).
If I move ONLY records which had some kind of "activity" in the last few years to a new database, I could probably reduce my database to 50,000 "real' or "active" records. (I would want to retain old records - just on the chance I might want historical info) .

If I create a second database would performance, mail fetching. etc likely improve?.

PS: Periodically, I lose older e-mail contents. That is, the e-mail header shows but the contents are missing. Could it be (as I suspect) I have too many records?
(My records are still D-Base not SQL.).

ronanc · GoldMine Veteran

Do you maintain your database regularly? Running a full maintenance (pack and rebuild, sort and verify) on a regular basis will more than likely give you more of a performance boost than anything else would.

In theory moving some records to a seperate database could improve performance, but bear in mind that several tables, mailbox and cal included, are common between all databases, so creating a second database wont make any difference on those tables. If anything creating a seperate database introduces more difficulties as means two databases of contacts to manage.

I would try the maintenance and see how you get on.

Also, if you have that many records in the database its probably time to start looking at moving away from a dBase backend and onto SQL Server. dBase will eventually fall over when the database grows too large.

bgannett · GoldMine Guru

I agree with Ronan. Backup then perform full maintenance of the database. You should move your data to SQL. GoldMine Premium is the way to go and, FYI, there is a special promotion availabe depending on how many users you are licensed for.

DJ · GoldMine Guru

Come on guys, 400,000 records in dBase is pushing the performance envelope no matter how you look at it. I like your idea of archiving 350,000 records, and keeping just the active ones. Don't forget to Purge your TLogs daily, and properly. Don't forget to do Maintenance daily, and properly. Don't forget to clean up old activities in the Calendar. Proper SOP's can only enhance performance on larger databases.

JimGunther · GoldMine Journeyman

Thanks for the tips guys.

I 'shoulda mentioned earlier, I'm a single user.

Many of my duplicates were created by importing various business databases. (As you know, you can have slight variations in names and companies and SMOOTH (Goldbox) does not clear all of them out.)

I think I need to create a filter that looks for ALL RECORDS "touched" since Feb 1. 2000. then create a new database using ONLY those record (and keep an archival database)

I had NOT done maintainance in quite some time and doing so DID seem to speed things up a bit.

While I'm tempted to upgrade (and perhaps spite-ing myself) I feel GM is not interested in single users like me.

DJ · GoldMine Guru

They had some super deals for Single Users last couple of months. You're wrong. FrontRange wants anyone that they can get.

bgannett · GoldMine Guru

DJ is sure correct. They want your business and had some very good deals recently for single users, i.e., you did not have to buy maintenance for 5 users.

DJ · GoldMine Guru

You did have to purchase Maintenance for the 5 User, you did not have to purchase FrontRange Support for the 3 User or the 1 User bundles.

In fact, they have extended the 3 User bundle another month.

Bronxgodzilla · GoldMine Apprentice

I completely agree with Ronanc -- yet I like the idea of filtering out all the dated records that Jim says he can do without -- if that is really the case. If I remember correctly, was not Goldbox able to detect dupes, given criteria of variable fields, number of characters, etc.? Just going by date for a filter will still leave the dupes in the later years. My suggestion would be get ALL the dupes out first then do a date file extraction to a new db.

Now, while I do not know 6.X operations, ideologically I would say to make the "new" db active and then move the "old" db away for storage, You will then have done the best thing and Roanc will be happy, too

BTW DJ, I can remember working with a 400,000 record db in Foxpro and VFP -- while I would definately agree with you about going to SQL in today's OS, with a lean and mean dbase programmatic structure in the "old days" it would only be a matter of enough processing power and memory, to get the job done.

I know I'm noob here, so please do not take offense

DJ · GoldMine Guru

FoxPro was a very powerful engine, and could easily handle 400,000 records whereas dBase, well, was iffy.