When thinking about using InterMapper Reports, which is based on the InterMapper Database, a little planning is in order in order to make sure you have accounted for the disk space you will need.
The InterMapper Database requires a significant amount of disk space. It also requires a fair amount of free space on the disk in order to perform maintenance operations. We recommend the following in order to ensure the best experience:
1. Pick a good data retention policy; one that keeps as little 'raw data' as possible. Reports barely even uses the raw data, so unless you're planning to write your own SQL queries, we would recommend the following:
- Keep raw data for just a few days; not more than a week
- Keep 5-minute samples for 1-3 months
- Keep hourly samples for 6-12 months
- Keep daily samples forever
Raw and 5-minute data tend to make up about 90% of the database's overall size, so the more you can limit those, the less disk space you'll need.
2. Once you've applied a good server-wide policy, wait for the database to go through another collection cycle, then use the 'Overview' page on its web interface to see estimated future disk usage. Add at least 50% to that value, and that's how much space you'll need to set aside. For example, if the estimated usage reaches 5GB and then levels off, you'll want to make about 8-10GB available for the database.
3. Be mindful that as you add more devices to your network, the database will grow beyond that initial estimate.
