Content Management Server 2001 Site Maintenance Best Practices

Article
08/02/2007

By Michael Laing

Microsoft Corporation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to outline the best practices for maintaining your Microsoft® Content Management Server (MSCMS) 2001 web site.

Introduction

Among the best practices covered in this article include database backups, MSCMS 2001 include files, MSCMS 2001 logs, hard drive capacity, system memory of your MSCMS 2001 machine(s), and general best practices.

Using the information in the following pages will help ensure a problem-free and high-performance MSCMS 2001 environment. This article is directed to anyone tasked with maintaining a MSCMS 2001 site.

This can include, but is not restricted to, webmasters, system administrators, database administrators, programmers, and Web architects.

Prerequisite Knowledge

This article assumes an understanding of the following:

ASP coding
General MSCMS 2001 knowledge
MSCMS 2001 template programming
Windows NT 4.0/2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server
SQL Server 7/2000 or Oracle 8i
Internet Information Server 5

MSCMS 2001 Database Backups

The following section discusses the importance, targeted frequency, version history, and storage of MSCMS 2001 database backups. For the purpose of this document, the term database refers to the Microsoft SQL Server 7/2000 that is housing the MSCMS 2001 data. Further, all databases containing MSCMS 2001 data should be backed up following the reasoning outlined in this article.

Refer to the article entitled Backing Up and Restoring a MSCMS 2001 Site for further information on the actual process of backing up a MSCMS 2001 database.

Why Database Backups are Important

The most important reason for adhering to a regular database backup schedule is to ensure that at least one version of your MSCMS 2001 Web site is available at all times in case of a major technical problem or database inconsistency. Further, database backups can act as a MSCMS 2001 site versioning scheme, and can be implemented to bring your web site back to a previous state after an unwanted change or series of changes have been made to your site.

Database Backup Frequency and Versions

The frequency at which you create a backup of your MSCMS 2001 database, and the number of database backup versions you keep will depend on how many additions or changes are being made to your site.

Database Backup Frequency

If there are many changes occurring to your MSCMS 2001 site every day, we recommend that you create daily backups of your MSCMS 2001 database. If authoring or changes happen less frequently than daily, consider decreasing the frequency of creating backups.

Database Backup Versions

The number of database backup versions you keep will also depend on the amount of MSCMS 2001 site additions or changes being done.

If there are many new or edited MSCMS 2001 templates, pages, postings, channels, or resources on a daily basis, we recommend that you maintain at least seven backup versions (at one backup per day). In this scenario you would be keeping roughly a one-week version history of your MSCMS 2001 site.

If fewer additions or changes are being made to your site, you may want to decrease the backup versions you keep to one for every two days of changes (at one backup every two days) with seven versions being kept. In this scenario, you would be keeping roughly a two-week version history of your MSCMS 2001 site. As with the frequency of creating database backups, the number of versions you maintain should be relative to the amount of additions and changes to your site.

Database Backup Storage

The database backups you create are extremely sensitive and important files and should be treated as such. We recommend you move your backups to an offsite storage area or your company vault at least once or twice a week.

MSCMS 2001 Include Files

The following section discusses best practices for managing your MSCMS 2001 include files. For the purpose of this document, the term include file refers to any file necessary for the proper functioning of your MSCMS 2001 site that does not reside in the MSCMS 2001 database. This pertains to any file that is part of the MSCMS 2001 virtual directory that is included in the installation, such as the files in the WBC Customizable folder, which has been modified to suit your site's needs, as well as any file integral to the normal operation of your site that you create from scratch.

Your MSCMS 2001 include files can be backed up manually or automatically, and should be maintained and managed using the same care with which you maintain actual application source code.

Automatically vs. Manually Backing Up Your MSCMS 2001 Include Files

Depending on what third-party applications are running on your MSCMS 2001 Content Server, you can automatically schedule backups of include files. You can also manually back up your include files following the same procedure for creating a backup of any other file or folder. The most straightforward method is to move the necessary files from their home directory to a storage directory.

Make a note of where you store your include files on the MSCMS 2001 server, and simply back up their parent directory. For example, if you have include files stored within subfolders of the \Server\IIS_NR folder, a good practice is to back up the entire IIS_NR folder. Include files do not normally grow so large as to compromise disk space, so copying the entire directory should not be a problem.

Managing Include Files–Best Practices

One of the best ways to manage your include files is to use Microsoft Visual SourceSafe®. A proper versioning scheme should be adhered to, and the file's author should include their name, and the date and time of authoring at the top of each file. Also, as with any coding practices, proper commenting of code is always beneficial.

The frequency at which you back up your include files and safely store them should reflect the frequency at which existing files are modified or new files are added. If daily changes or additions are occurring, we recommend you maintain a daily backup schedule.

Log Files

Managing and analyzing the log files associated with your MSCMS 2001 site is a good practice and can lead to the gathering of valuable information. The following section discusses what roles log files play, backing them up, and where to store them.

Log File Roles

For the purpose of this discussion, log file roles fit into two main categories: marketing and maintenance.

Marketing

Analyzing the Internet Information Server (IIS) logs for your MSCMS 2001 site for marketing reasons is no different than analyzing logs from a non-MSCMS 2001 site. Valuable information and statistics can be gathered and used to verify, for example, how many users are browsing your site every day, how long they stay, and what they are interested in. Using log files in this manner can help point your e-business in the right direction.

Maintenance

When there are problems with your MSCMS 2001 site, looking at certain log files can yield information pertaining to the error, or point to the error itself. Two such log files are the MSCMS 2001 Site Stager log files, and the Windows Event Viewer (Application, Security, Event) log files.

Site Stager Log File

When a MSCMS 2001 Site Stager instance has been initiated, a log file for that staging procedure is created. The log file displays a history of events, from beginning to end, for the staging process. If something goes wrong when you are staging your site, the Site Stager log file will probably show where the problem lies. Site Stager log files are in the SiteStagerLogs directory.

If you plan to back up your Site Stager log files, we recommend keeping them in the same directory as your include file backups.

Application, Event, and Security Log Files

Application, event, and security log files may hold information that will point to where and when a problem is occurring. View these logs by navigating to Programs > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.

Log File Backups

If importance is placed on the information that site log files can yield, the frequency and method(s) of storage of log backups should reflect this. Log files can become quite large, so for the purposes of backing up the information, it may be more efficient to run a log analysis first, and then back that up as opposed to the actual log files.

Hard Drive Capacity

In the following section, the MSCMS 2001 server and MSCMS 2001 database hard drive capacity best practices are discussed.

MSCMS 2001 Database Machine Hard Drive Capacity

Depending on the purpose of a MSCMS 2001 site, the MSCMS 2001 database can range in size from 400 MB to 1.3 GB, and on average, some sites can surpass 2.0 GB in database size.

The recommended best practice for determining how large a hard drive should be housing the MSCMS 2001 database is: multiply the size (or targeted size) of the database by five. For example, if you predict that your MSCMS 2001 database will be approximately 2 GB, your hard drive should be at least 10 GB. Keep in mind, your MSCMS 2001 database is constantly growing, so it is better to have more than enough hard drive space than not enough.

In terms of storing your MSCMS 2001 database backup files, the ideal setup is to have the actual database on one partition, and the backup files on another. This will ensure that the backups are kept safe and the increasing database size will not conflict with the storage partition.

MSCMS 2001 Server Machine Hard Drive Capacity

When determining the targeted size of the MSCMS 2001 server hard drive capacity, the documented best practice is to follow the minimums outlined in the MSCMS 2001 Setup Guide. If your database and server reside on the same physical machine, it is recommended that your hard drive follow the formula above plus the published MSCMS 2001 server capacity values.

System Memory

In the following section, the MSCMS 2001 server and MSCMS 2001 database system memory (RAM) best practices are discussed.

Resolution Database Machine Memory

The published memory allocations in the MSCMS 2001 Setup Guide should be considered as values appropriate for a small to average-sized MSCMS 2001 site.

Although it may be possible for smaller sites to run with less memory, larger sites will suffer performance degradation as the size of the database grows. It is recommended that the MSCMS 2001 database machine system memory be one-quarter to one-third of the active database size. For example, if the database is 1 GB, best practice recommends that the minimum system memory be 256 MB.

Important: When calculating the minimum database system memory following these guidelines, use the active database size; if your total database size is 2 GB, but 1 GB is being taken up by archived pages, the active database size is 1 GB.

MSCMS 2001 Content Server Machine Memory

It is recommended that you follow the MSCMS 2001 System Memory minimums outlined in the MSCMS 2001 Setup Guide.

For sites that are larger than average, or in situations where there are MSCMS 2001 servers in a clustered environment, it is recommended that the system memory be increased accordingly.

General Best Practices

In addition to what has been outlined above, there are some general best practices that, if followed, will help you maintain a performance-efficient and trouble-free MSCMS 2001 site. The following section discusses background processing, deleting MSCMS 2001 objects and their containers, container size, and the MSCMS 2001 node cache and disk cache.

Background Cleanup

Background cleanup helps conserve server storage space by removing obsolete data. This can include items that have been emptied from the Deleted Items container, expired postings, non-referenced resources, and certain archived pages.

It is recommended that background cleanup be run daily. It is scheduled by default at installation time of the MSCMS 2001 server to run at midnight, however you can adjust this time through the MSCMS 2001 Server Configuration Application. For more information, refer to the MSCMS 2001 Site Administrator's Guide.

Deleting MSCMS 2001 Objects and Their Containers

When you delete any MSCMS 2001 object or container, it gets moved into the Deleted Items folder. It is recommended that you regularly empty the Deleted Items container.

! Warning Do not allow more than 200 objects or containers to reside in the Deleted Items folder at one time. Also, it is highly recommended that you do not attempt to move more than 100 MSCMS 2001 objects to the Deleted Items folder at one time.

Although purging the Deleted Items folder disables any further accessibility to the deleted items, the items will not be permanently removed from your system until the next time background cleanup is run.

Container Size

It is recommended that you do not allow more than 200 objects to reside in a given container at one time. Having more than 200 objects in a container will compromise your site's performance. For example, do not create more than 200 postings in a given channel, or have more than 200 pages in a given folder.

Node Cache and Disk Cache

Node Cache

The size of your MSCMS 2001 node cache can be modified through the MSCMS 2001 Server Configuration Application. If the size of your MSCMS 2001 site is continuously increasing and you notice performance degradation, increasing the node cache size beyond the default of 2000 may be helpful.

Increasing the node cache will increase the number of MSCMS 2001 objects being cached for faster viewing and accessing. To increase the node cache size, run the MSCMS 2001 Server Configuration Application.

Disk Cache

The MSCMS 2001 disk cache is set during installation. Increasing the disk cache size will have a positive effect on MSCMS 2001 site performance. To increase the disk cache size subsequent to the initial installation, run the MSCMS 2001 Server Configuration Application.

Glossary

Container: Virtual storage spaces (folders, channels, or galleries) used to organize pages, postings, resources, and templates. Pages are stored in folders; postings are stored in channels; and resources and templates are stored in galleries.

Internet Information Server (IIS): Microsoft's Web server software that runs on a Windows NT or Windows 2000 platform.

Include File: Any file that is necessary for the proper functioning of the MSCMS 2001 site that does not reside within the MSCMS 2001 database.

Object: MSCMS 2001 data objects are maintained in the MSCMS 2001 database and can be manipulated by users. An object can be a container such as a folder, channel, gallery, or user role, or an item such as a page, posting, template, or rights group.

Server Configuration Applicatio (SCA): A MSCMS 2001 utility used to configure individual or multiple (server farms) MSCMS 2001 servers. After a new installation, users can selectively configure, globally or specific to one server, activities such as changing the MSCMS 2001 system account, and adding and removing supported NT Domains, Active Directory, containers, and Site Server organizational units (OUs) as the network topology changes or grows.

Server, MSCMS 2001: The MSCMS 2001 server is a machine that hosts the MSCMS 2001 server software. The server is connected to an MSCMS 2001 database and interacts with MSCMS 2001 Site Builder