Background information on database growth
As you continue to measure, your database grows in size. By default, we install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express.
SQLServer comes in different flavours to meet demands for different types of customers. The Express version has a database limit of 10GB (GigaByte) while commercial licenses of the database server support a near unlimited storage capacity of 524PB (PetaBytes).
For typical quality assurance tasks and periodical scanning of ink zones in offset, the installed Express version will do fine for a large group of users and you do not need to upgrade to a commercial license of SQLServer. However, when you measure ink zones on big offset presses in full production and you wish to keep ALL data over time, that 10GB might not be enough.
Of course you can delete older jobs and measurements but keeping that data available is of interest for statistical analysis. In these situations you might want to consider switching to a commercial license of MSSQLServer with it’s (near) unlimited data capacity.
Which database solution is right for you?:
| Usage | SQLServer Express (included) | MS SQL Server Commercial License |
|---|---|---|
| Periodical QA measurements, less then 5 machines | + | |
| Periodical measurement of ink zones in offset | + | |
| Continuous QA measurements, 5 machines or more | + | + |
| Continuous measurement of ink zones in offset | + |
Calculated average size per measurement and typical limits for the free MSSQL Server Express:
| Use | Average size [kB] | Typical measurements limit MSSQL Server Express (included) | MS SQL Server Commercial License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single row QA color bar (30 patches) | 45 | 185.000 | Unlimited |
| Three row QA color bar (72 patches) | 106 | 80.000 | Unlimited |
| 31 zone offset press (217 patches) | 317 | 26.500 | Unlimited |
| 55 zone offset press (385 patches) | 562 | 15.000 | Unlimited |
Database cleanup
From versions 16.2 and later the System management module provides a database cleanup tool.