datafinder problems

[Manse]

We're having trouble with datafinder "losing" indexes overnight.  We have data saved on a set of shared network drives, as well as data on each individual computer.  While diadem itself works beautifully, datafinder seems to forget where files are.  At first, I though it was because some of the engineers were taking their computers home and datafinder was losing just the network drives, however we have even had datafinder forget where files were on the local machines/desktops.

Has anyone experienced something similar?  Datafinder produces no error messages and drives/folders remain in the list of search areas.  Currently, we are having to re-index roughly a terabyte of files every morning, which kills us for at least an hour.  Is this a common problem, or are we just lucky?

-Jeremy Trotter

Wyle

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Jermeny,

I've never heard of this problem before, so I guess in that sense you're just "lucky".  Are you using many separate My DataFinders, each on its own computer, or arer you using one central DataFinder Server Edition?  If you're using separate My DataFinders, how many are there?  Is the problem spread evenly and randomly among all the DIAdem copies, or is it only a few of them that show this errant behavior?  What type of data files are you using-- TDM, TDMs, or some custom file format with a DataPlugin?  Has this problem always occurred, or did it just start happening recently?

We're going to have to dig for clues here.  Can you think of anything other than the network drive that might be causing this issue?  Have you installed any software on those computers recently, etc.?  Does the problem ever happen on a computer that is left on, or does it only happen on a computer that is shut down and then restarted?

When the DataFinder loses track of those files, what is the icon (question mark, clock) and color of the icon that appears to the left of files it no longer has indexed?  Do you have these DataFinders set up to automatically adjust to file events as they occur, or are your DataFinders set up to only index on a set schedule?

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi again Jeremy,

DIAdem R&D chimed and and wanted to know the exact method for shutting down the computers which exhibit this DataFinder problem.  Are they being shut down normally and completely, or are they being shut down abnormally and abruptly, or are they being put into a Windows sleep mode, or what?

Thanks,

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[Manse]

We have experienced this issue on at least two computers, with varying rates of occurrence.  On one machine, the index would show the drives with a question mark (as though they were unconnected, yet you could search through the un-indexed/gray folders directly to the drive.  A re-index of the drive solved this both times it occurred.

The other machine has the same problem, but it is more frequent.  Even after reindexing this morning and running sucessful searches, running a simple search for "*desktop*" this afternoon yields no results.  The folders that contain the data are listed as indexed (yellow) but show as empty (again, you can navigate and view the files in each folder from the gray list).

We are primarily searching for *.tdms files, though the index has previously worked with *.dat raw files as well.

The systems are 64bit, windows XP, and are restarted/shut down normally under the vast majority of circumstances.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Manse,

Please use the Advanced Search to investigate this issue-- the Simple Search sometimes returns no results when you think it should.  In particular, I don't believe the Simple Search pays any attention to a leading "*" character in the Search term, so the "*Desktop*" search sounds like a bad way to measure your system's behavior.  Try the same File.Path="*Desktop*" condition in the Advanced Search, and you should get the results you desire, unless of course the DataFinder has again "forgotten" those files. 

Did you really mean to say that these computers are running a WinXP 64 bit operating system?  That's not one of the listed operating systems that DIAdem is rated to run on...

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments