Garbage Collection

Management > Business Rule Linkage > Recurrences

WorldServer creates many database objects to represent different elements (projects, tasks, segmented documents, and so on). Some of these objects are deleted as soon as they become obsolete, but most are not. This is done for two main reasons: deleting objects may be a time consuming procedure and it is not always immediately clear when an object becomes obsolete. These obsolete objects are “garbage collected” periodically to reclaim database space.

For example, when an asset is translated in the WorldServer Browser Workbench it is segmented into the “Segmented Document” structure. This structure is used internally as long as the corresponding asset does not change. When the asset does change, a new segmented document structure is created and the old one left in the database as garbage to collect.

The garbage collector's default schedule is to run every night at 1AM. It can be controlled by modifying the recurrence named GC_TASK. Garbage collection will run as specified by the recurrence. If you adjust the recurrence, WorldServer must be restarted to notice the change.

Garbage collection consists of several cleaners, each of which cleans up a particular area in the WorldServer schema. Garbage collection executes the following cleaners:

Translation Memory Attribute Cleaner
This cleaner cleans up custom attributes on Translation Memory that have been removed in WorldServer. It removes orphaned TM attribute columns from all partitioned TM tables in the database. Dropping all TM attribute columns from all TM tables is a lengthy process that is relegated to this Garbage Collector Cleaner.
Completed Background Task Cleaner
Garbage collects all completed background tasks. This Completed Background Task cleaner runs at garbage collection time and removes any background tasks which were completed at least 7 days ago. This time interval can be adjusted. Contact WorldServer Technical Support.
Segmented Assets Cleaner
When a document is edited in segments, a segmented version of the document gets created. This cleaner removes segmented assets which are no longer needed because the source asset has changed in the repository.
Completed Project Cleaner
Allowing completed projects and tasks to remain in the system can be a useful resource for project managers. However, they can quickly consume a large chunk of the database space and, after a period of time, are no longer that useful. The completed project cleaner runs at garbage collection time and removes any project for which tasks were all completed at least 15 days ago. It then goes through all of the tasks and removes any task which was completed at least 30 days ago. Both of these time intervals can be adjusted. Contact WorldServer Technical Support.
Expired Sessions Cleaner
Every time a user logs into WorldServer, a session is created for that user. If the sessions is not accessed for a certain configurable amount of time, the session expires and the user must log into the system again. This cleaner removes all of these expired sessions from the database. The session expiration time can be set using the session_timeout property in general.properties.
Update Oracle Table Statistics (Oracle only)
This cleaner causes the Oracle database to recreate its indexes, which improves database performance.
AIS Metadata Cleaner
This cleaner cleans up the following WorldServer objects: AIS properties, AIS ACLs, AIS locks, linkage, default workflows, and change detection.
Workflow Doctor
This doctor runs during garbage collection and repairs many known types of workflow corruption.
Term Database Attribute Cleaner
This cleaner cleans up custom attributes on Term Databases (TDs) that have been removed in WorldServer. It also removes orphaned TD attribute columns from all partitioned TD tables in the database, a rather lengthy process.
Workflow Cleaner
This cleaner removes obsolete workflows that are not in use by tasks and which can no longer be accessed in any way. These are usually historical workflows which have been replaced by newer versions, and which no active tasks in the system are executing.
Ad Hoc Data Cleaner
This cleaner removes segmentation data created for ad hoc jobs. This data is usually generated when you export a translation kit (or project package) directly from the WorldServer Explorer, rather than from a workflow or project.