Reference Repair Utility - Process & Duration

[iamerm]

I am trying to reduce the size of my Vault file store (currently using Vault Basic 2013).  So, I went to do a Purge & got this message:

"Purge is currently disabled on this vault.  Would you like to enable it now?  Note: It is strongly recommended to repair data using Reference Repair Utility prior to enabling Purge.  Please refer to Vault Wiki for information on Reference Repair Utility."

1) I obviously never ran the Reference Repair Utility before.  Does this help to explain why we've had to perform an Action -> Update File Reference numerous times in version 2013?  I had never even been aware of this command prior to this version, but now we have to do it all the time when performing Vault functions like Move or Copy Design.

2) Does anyone find the Reference Repair Utility process a bit complex/frustrating?

3) Has anyone successfully completed this entire process?  Our file store is about 70 GB.  Based on my initial experiments with just a few folders, I would imagine this could take days or even weeks!

[r.smith1]

Hi iamerm

Please review the Wiki reference for Reference Repair Utility fro steps and why the utility is necessary:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/Help/Help/0170-Administ170/0275-Referenc275

[iamerm]

Thank you for the link.  However, it doesn't address the questions I raised.  I suppose question #2 was mostly a complaint.  However, I think questions #1 & #3 were valid.

[minkd]

To your first question, the Reference Repair Utility and the Update File References command in Vault Explorer are unrelated.

The Reference Repair Utility scans CAD files for missing file references in vault and generates a spreadsheet containing possible matches so that you can choose which ones to import.

The Update File References command adds some additional information from the CAD file to the existing file references stored in vault. This information is used to correctly resolve to the correct file after files have been renamed or moved - which is why we restrict renames & moves for files missing that information.

For your third question, we (Autodesk) have certainly completed the process many times over on a variety of datasets during testing; but I believe you are looking for an answer from other customers.

-Dave

[iamerm]

Thank you for the feedback.  Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to risk skipping this process because it appears to be so time-consuming that it's not practical.