TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is Database Optimisation?
Database optimisation is the process of using various database manufacturer tools to fine tune their efficiency and maximise the speed at which it works. The tools need configuring, monitoring, and the results evaluated to achieve this.
Why Optimise Your Merac Application Database?
In a dynamic business landscape, ensuring fast and reliable application responses from your database infrastructure is paramount. Merac applications have a database to store information such as transactions, customer records, configuration and much more. If you have a database which is not performing very well, you may find that responses in the application are slow, or even time-out, preventing you from running your business effectively. This is easily avoided if you have the right technical procedures in place to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Who Is Responsible?
Merac offer a cloud hosted database service, but if you are hosting the database on your own infrastructure, then your IT team are responsible for its maintenance. We provide guidance for some products on how your IT Team can keep the database in the best condition (see this article for logged-in users), but if your team does not include database experts, then for a minimal cost we can help you avoid costly issues with availability and performance of your database.
How Can Merac Help?
Merac’s Experts
We have product and databases experts ready to provide assurance that your database is performing the best it can on your server. These experts already manage our cloud database hosting service for customers, and so have the product and database technical experience to know what’s best for your application database. Importantly, they know how to tune, but then also maintain that state of tune as your database grows and changes over time.
Steps to an Optimised Database
The fixed price Database Optimisation and Maintenance Plan consist of the stages below.
Initialisation
- Perform diagnostic checks on the database and run tools to optimise it
We will also recommend any changes you might need to make on your server (e.g. if it does not have enough space or memory). - Validate your Backup Regime Meet Requirements
Merac are not responsible for your database backups, but we can make sure it is being backed up to the local server for your own tools to copy off the server, and advise if you need to implement anything additional. - Configure and schedule a regular maintenance plan
The optimisation tasks will run weekly outside of the hours your business is open.
Monitoring and Verification
- Alerts will be configured from your database to email Merac Support directly
If there are issues reported by the database, Support will act upon those tickets from the email quickly which will be raised as a Priority 2 by default. - Monthly Inspection
Once a month, we will log on to your server and inspect it manually to make sure all optimisation routines are as expected, and that they are having an effect. You will be provided with a brief report giving you the assurance that everything is OK.
Annual Health Check
At the beginning of each subsequent year since the plan commenced, the same diagnostic steps will be performed as the Initialisation phase which includes recommendations which might have changed due to any changes on the server (some servers host more than the Merac product database, so there are many variables).
What Happens if there’s a Problem?
The Database Optimisation and Maintenance Plan is provided on a fixed price basis per database. If any of the checks find an issue that we need to spend time investigating and resolving, then we will do this on a time and materials basis at the applicable standard rate. An example of this work would be if the database has grown too large and you would like us to archive some data.
Additional Options
The following can optionally be added to the Database Optimisation and Maintenance Plan
Database Backups
Ensuring your data is backed up in the case of a major incident is essential in any business continuity plan. We will give you the comfort of knowing that backups are being created successfully (at a schedule you define - e.g. every night) which will include making sure that they are the expected size, location, and number of old versions kept.
Frequency: Checking backups would be part of the monthly Monitoring and Verification stage described previously.
Disaster Recovery Testing
If you have subscribed to the optional extra of verifying that database backups are being created, you can also add on that we will do a Disaster Recovery test. This takes your assurance that you are ready for anything to the next level by taking your most recent backup, connecting it to the Merac back office and till programs, and ensuring the integrity of the database backup.
Frequency: This can be done as often as required by the customer – we would recommend at least every 6 months.
Archiving
If you would like to regularly archive your data, we can add this to the Database Optimisation and Maintenance Plan. Sometimes a database can grow so large that it impacts performance, even if all the other industry standard maintenance actions are taking place. Data that can be archived includes dormant customers, and transactions older than a certain number of years.
The archived data is kept in a separate database for you to backup and keep.
Frequency: This can be done as often as required by the customer. We would perform analysis on the database first and provide a recommendation.
Next Steps
Contact your Merac Customer Success Manager to discuss what best fits your needs, and how we can work together to give you optimum performance and business continuity.
Download our brochure if you would like to discuss this with your team.