A few import questions

montek · Post by **montek** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:55 pm

I'm about to import another project into Vault from SourceSafe. I haven't done this in a few years and I just want to verify a couple of things, some pertaining directly to the import and others indirectly. We are currently using version 3.1.9.3798 and are planning to upgrade all of our users and licenses after the import.

1. First off, I'm torn on whether to create a new repository or not (and just put it under our existing $/projects/ folder). I've read the best practices for setting up repositories and it's unclear exactly what the performance implications or benefits are. We don't currently enable security on our repository but we may need to in the future. Are extra "branches" within Vault really going to slow things down? Later, we can always move things out with the Import/Export feature. There's some downside to having multiple repositories so I would prefer to be able to manage things without doing that unless there's some serious performance drawbacks.

2. I've gone through the pre-screen for importing and am wondering if the estimated time it's suggesting is dependable. It's suggesting that it will take almost 5 hours to do the import of one project. Is this reliable or should I plan a dry run (where I lock everyone out of Vault, backup, do it, and restore from backup) to get a more accurate number?

3. I've read about the import/export feature to move things between repositories but there seem to be some suggestion that this was not the best practice. I got the feeling that this suggestion was primarily because of the TIME involved. Is there any other reason to be concerned about?

Thanks a ton.

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:00 am

First off, I'm torn on whether to create a new repository or not

The fewer nodes in the tree, the better the performance. If you're adding 100 nodes, that's not a big deal. If you're adding 1,000, you'll probably notice a difference.

However, you also need to do what's best for your development process. If you need to share or branch items across projects or if there are dependencies, they should all be in the same repository.

I've gone through the pre-screen for importing and am wondering if the estimated time it's suggesting is dependable.

It's an estimate. Import time depends on network issues, database complexity, etc. Five hours is a pretty short import -- an import can take days, depending on the amount of VSS history.

I got the feeling that this suggestion was primarily because of the TIME involved. Is there any other reason to be concerned about?

A Vault folder export or import can take a long time, depending on the amount of history. Also, a Vault database may have some historical transaction inconsistencies that can cause the export to fail, especially if your database was created several Vault versions ago. If an export fails, we can fix the problem, it takes a while to analyze the database.

montek · Post by **montek** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:09 am

lbauer wrote:It's an estimate. Import time depends on network issues, database complexity, etc. Five hours is a pretty short import -- an import can take days, depending on the amount of VSS history.

I guess my most important question is whether or not it's accurate. I don't mind if it estimates 5 hours and takes 6 but how accurate are these estimates? Has it happened that it estimates it will take 5 hours and it takes two days? If so, I'd better conduct a dry run.

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:20 am

No, it wouldn't be that far off. Of course a dry run won't hurt, either.

montek · Post by **montek** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:22 am

Okay, thanks Linda!