How To: Understand Cold Storage in SOLIDWORKS PDM

Cold storage in SOLIDWORKS PDM is a feature that helps manage disk space by automatically moving or deleting old versions of files. When files are no longer actively used, they can be archived to a separate location (cold storage) to free up space in the main vault. This process ensures that your PDM system remains efficient and organized.

Creating a Cold Storage Schema:

Open the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool from The Start Menu.

Right-click on the “Cold Storage” node and select “New Cold Storage Schema.”

Enter a schema name and choose the archive server where it will run. If you have a replicated environment, create a schema for each archive server.

Cold Storage Method:

Decide what you want cold storage to do with old versions:

Delete: Versions are permanently removed (cannot be recovered without a backup).

Move to another folder: Archive files to a different drive with more space.

You can define the location you wish to save the folder to and use system variables to create the folder name. In the above example it would create a folder called ‘<day>-<Month>-<Year>. So if the cold storage folder schema was run on the 17^st June 2024 the folder created would be as per the following image:

Its also possible to define the media name. This essentially creates a subfolder within the directory specified above. In this example I am just using a simple counter to name the folder. But you can see there are other variables to select from.

Based on the above settings, this folder structure is created:

Defining a media name is useful because the media name specified in the cold storage options will be displayed in the history of the file.

Versions:

Number of Versions to keep per archive:

Keeps the number of versions you specify. Deletes or moves older versions to cold storage. For example, if you specify 4, the fifth latest version, and older will be processed. The latest version of a file is always kept in the archive server.

Never move versions with revisions to cold storage:

(Recommended.) Does not process versions with attached revisions. Note that labeled versions are always excluded from cold storage. This is usually the “Approved” or “Released” versions of your file.

Folders that are part of this schema:

This allows you to define the folders that the cold storage schema is run on. Please note that this will automatically include subfolders.

Predefined Intervals

You can schedule the cold storage schema to run in predefined intervals. You have a choice of:

Every day at 00:00

Monday – Friday at 00:00

Every hour, Every day

Every hour Monday – Friday

Every hour between 06:00 and 18:00, on Monday-Friday

User Defined Schedule

User Defined Schedule

Selecting user defined schedule makes the interval string available. Within this dialogue you can specify the interval the cold storage schema runs to.

 The schedule has the format: Minute Hour Weekday where:

Minute: Use numerals 0 through 59.

Hour: Use numerals 0 through 23, where 0 is midnight.

Weekday: Use numerals 1 through 7, where 1 is Monday.

Separate sections with a space. Sections can contain a single number, a range (1-7), or a list (0,15,30,45). An asterisk represents the entire range. For example:

0 0 *        Run every day at midnight.

0 2 1-5  Run every Monday through Friday at 2 a.m.

0 * *        Run every hour on the hour every day.

0 */2 *   Run every other hour every day.

0,15,30,45 * *    Run every 15 minutes every day.

0,30 * 1-5             Run every half hour Monday through Friday.

0 6-18 1-5             Run every hour between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The time is local to the server.

Restoring from cold storage

If you have a file where there have been versions sent to cold storage, it is possible to restore provided you have access to the cold storage media & you have been granted the correct permissions within the PDM Vault.

To restore the file, browse to the file in the vault and select Get Version. If the file has versions in cold storage, you will see a ‘versions in cold storage’ option and if you select that you will see all versions that are in cold storage.

Click on a version in cold storage to restore it. If it is a file that has references, you will be given the option to get the  versions of reference files the assembly is using. If the version of reference files are also in cold storage you will be given the option to restore those files also.

If you select them and press ‘Get’. Another dialogue box will appear:

Within the above dialogue you can choose:

Click Restore to restore the reference file shown and display the information for the next file.

Click Skip to skip the file shown and display the information for the next file.

Click Restore All to restore all the files that you selected for retrieval in the Get dialog box and close the Get from Cold Storage dialog box.

Click Skip All to skip all remaining files and close the dialog box.

Click Cancel to close the dialog box without restoring any files.

We hope you found this guide to understand cold storage in SOLIDWORKS useful! Visiativ customers can contact us via the SOLIDWORKS technical support page.