To implement file vaulting, you use the Vault Configuration window to define the following objects:

For information about accessing the Vault Configuration window, refer to Vault Configuration Page.

You can use the Vault Configuration window menus and toolbar buttons to perform such actions as the following:

The left panel of the Vault Configuration window displays a tree view of the site, which includes all of the hosts, vaults, and folders that have been defined for the site. (Each folder must have its own unique directory.)

The Vault Configuration window shows icons only for the site to which you are connected and for content replication remote sites. The content of the right panel depends on whether Show only existing mounts or Show all possible mounts is selected:

A mount is the association between a folder or a root folder and a host. When you create or update a mount, you specify how the Windchill method server running on the host accesses a specific file storage location on a host.

All folders or root folders must be mounted to all available hosts. Otherwise, a method server running on a host without a mount is unable to access content files when a download operation is requested. When a folder or a root folder is mounted to more than one host (for example, in a cluster), all mount paths associated with one folder or root folder must point to the same physical location.

When defining or updating a mount, you must specify the following:

When a folder is mounted to a directory and the vault and folder are validated successfully, a directory called MOUNT_VALIDATION_DATA is created and a file whose name starts with Site_ is created in that directory. If the folder mount is changed later, and you want to use this directory path as a mount for another folder, you must delete this file first.

Changing the path value associated with a mount makes all files stored in the previous location inaccessible until they are moved to the new path location. Use the following update procedure to avoid download failures when you are changing a mount location:

You must ensure that folders in the vault configuration are validated for them to be used. Content is written only to folders that are validated and when the status of the corresponding mount is valid.

For example, if a user creates a folder, mounts it, and does not validate it, content is not written even if the mount path is correct. In another case, if a user shares a folder from a remote machine without setting Modify permission for other users to access the folder over the network, an attempt to validate the mount to that folder in the Vault Configuration utility shows an INVALID mount status and content cannot be written to that folder.

In other words, content is written only to the vault folders for which all the mounts that have a mount status of VALID.

When the mount associated with the root folder is updated, the physical directory path, specified as the new mount path, should have the same directory structure below it as the physical directory specified by the old mount path.

For example, if the old root folder mount path is D:\folder1 with the testvault_RootFolder_1_Folder_1 subdirectory below it and you want to update the mount path to D:\folder2, then the following directory structure must exist: D:\folder2\testvault_RootFolder_1_Folder_1.

If a root folder mount update is attempted and the required subdirectories have not been created, an error message similar to the following appears:

When you are updating the mount of a root folder, do the following:

This tool replaces existing folders on a master or replica vault with root folders. The root folder uses the mount path of the folder as its mount path. A subfolder is created below the root folder mount path and any files present in the (old, converted) folder are moved to this subfolder.

This tool replaces existing folders on a master or replica vault with root folders. The root folder uses the mount path of the folder as its mount path. A subfolder is created below the root folder mount path and any files present in the (old, converted) folder are moved to this subfolder.

The user name and password for startup are the administrator credentials.

You can find a list of possible command line options by running the following command:

To list existing vaults and folders, run the tool with one of the following options:

To convert folders to root folders, run the tool with the following option:

For each folder of each vault passed in the following argument, the folder is unmounted and in each folder’s place, a new root folder is created with a root mount path corresponding to the original folder’s mount path.

Following is a list of valid arguments:

To free up disk space, you may want to perform periodic maintenance on vaults and folders to remove unreferenced files. An unreferenced file is one that no longer has a valid association to a Windchill object. You can remove unreferenced files by doing one of the following:

You can also use the Object > Define Content Cleanup Rules option to set up an automated cleanup schedule that marks files as unreferenced, and optionally deletes files for replicated items in replica vaults that match criteria you specify.

When you remove unreferenced files, they are permanently deleted from the host system. Therefore, you should generate backup information before you perform the cleanup operation. You can do this from the Vault Configuration window by selecting File > Generate Backup Info. When you do this, the Windchill method server writes to the log file identified by the $(wt.fv.log.mountInfoFile) property in the wt.properties file. This file contains file vault mounting information in the following format: <hostname><mount path>.

You can use the backup information file to configure your system backup tool for effective protection of your file vaults. If you are not setting properties through a graphical user interface or in a mapping rules file, you add or edit properties with the xconfmanager utility. For more information, see Using the xconfmanager Utility.

In addition, the following rules govern deletion of vault objects:

The RemoveUnreferencedFiles tool enables you to clean up unreferenced files from a command-line interface. Only administrator users can run this tool. This tool provides a different way to perform the same functions as the Remove unreferenced files option available from the Vault Configuration window. It is helpful if you want to remove unreferenced files as part of a cron job or batch script.

You run the RemoveUnreferencedFiles tool from a Windchill shell with the following commands:

Use this tool with one of the following options:

You must include one of the following parameters:

When you run this tool, it creates a log file in a subfolder named RemoveUnreferencedFiles in the Windchill log directory. The log includes the following information: the user who ran the tool, input parameters, the start time, the completion time, and any errors that occurred.

If the vault cleanup audit logs become too large, you can use the ContentCleanupLogsUtility tool to extract and purge these logs. The data that is extracted is saved in a ZIP file. This tool can only be run by administrators, and a Windchill instance must be running when the tool is run.

To run this tool, enter the following command in a Windchill shell:

You can include any of the following arguments when using this tool. If you do not specify any arguments, logs are extracted at the site level for the last 60 days, and the resulting ZIP file is saved in the following location: <Windchill>\logs.

When you use this tool, a window appears and requests your user name and password. Be sure that the user whose credentials you enter is a member of the Administrators group.