EAP files getting larger

[Ian Mitchell]

I've had a couple of customers recently who have created unexpectedly large EAP models. In one case, a few newbie BAs created a 200+Mb model in just a few weeks, but <5,000 rows in t_object.
Compacting the model took it down to 125 Mb, but that still seemed a lot. Finally, I exported all the content to XMI, and all the ref data, then re-imported everything. Result: a 12Mb model, which is about what I was expecting.

• My another customer is not quite so extreme, but they see the same effect when exporting/re-importing: model size is reduced by 80%.

• Just tried the same thing on what I thought was a well looked-after model of my own: this time just a 50% reduction in size!

Question is, what's happening here? Have  I missed-out in exporting some data, such that this isn't a fair comparison? Ticked all the boxes in the Ref data, and the whole model went into the XMI.
Normally I recommend that model manager runs the Project Integrity check once a week, and compacts their EAP, and that's enough to maintain a good model. But is there something else we should be doing?

Why am I bothered about file size? Just makes everything take longer, especially when models are being moved about, versioned, backed-up etc.

Also, I can't make any of these models available for anyone else to experiment with.

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hi Ian,

just try: Tools, Data Management, Manage *.eap files, compact *.eap file.

Access don't reorganize itself. You have to do it with Access or with the above command.

Helmut

[Ian Mitchell]

As I said in the initial post, I had already compacted the files.

[Takeshi K]

Usually, the following data tend to be large:

- Audit log
- Baseline data
- Images

Maybe the first or second item is the reason, I guess.

HTH,

[philchudley]

I agree with HTH I would check the Audit settings.

If Audit is indeed on, then

1) Use Audit Settings and Save the Logs
2) Clear the logs
3) Compact the EAP file

Repeat 1) through 3) above on a regular (weekly monthly?) basis

Cheers

Phil

[qwerty]

Of course you could write a little script printing COUNT * for all tables.

@Phil: HTH is not Takeshi's initials :-)

q.

[philchudley]

@qwerty

Oops thanks for the heads up!