Space taken by documents in db is smaller than real size?

[judyxiao]

Hi, we are using Oracle database as the storage for document contents. I did some research on the space used in the database after uploading some documents (.pdf and .doc) through the interface. It seems to me that only 10% of space were taken in the database based on the original file size while the file contents are the same before/after uploading. This is efficient but I just wonder if alfresco did some way of compression or conversion in order to take less space? Thanks.  – Judy

[flafeer]

Alfresco, like some other ECM systems, stores metadata in the database. And then it stores the content (and the full text indices) in the file system.

So what you are seeing in Oracle is not the content.

Hope this helps.

Firoze

[judyxiao]

Thanks a lot Firoze for your helpful information. Then is there any documention to help us plan a good approach for monitoring the space usage of the file system? – Judy

[alexander]

Content and indexes are stored in alf_data folder/directory.

Its size plus database size should be good indication of space usage.

[flafeer]

Thanks a lot Firoze for your helpful information. Then is there any documention to help us plan a good approach for monitoring the space usage of the file system? – Judy

We keep our filestore on its own filesystem and we use the standard OS/filesystem level tools to monitor that. Of course, it's not necessary to have its own filesystem to do this.

Hope this helps,

Firoze

[judyxiao]

Hi Alexander and Firoze, thanks both of you for your answers. I found those files as you indicated and appreciate that you shared your experience. Take care.  – Judy

[paulhh]

… of course, if you want to store the content as blobs in the DB, you can 🙂

Alfresco is very flexible - you can add or modify datastores to put it where you want how you want.

Cheers
Paul.