Cleaning up a veteran K1000 -- what can we delete?
I attended the online Kace UserKon last week and I saw a presenter mention "keeping K1000 clean". I recall the UserKon presenter showed in passing searching for old entries for Software that don't match any devices and deleting those.
Our K1000 server has been online for several years (managing around 1000 endpoints) and could use some weeding down.
What are some things we can safely delete -- after a full backup of the server to be safe?
FYI I'm already in the process of manually cleaning out unneeded software distributions, labels, SmartLabels, scripts and CIRs. I'm now interested in what I can safely delete that humans did NOT create within K1000. Software entries, patches?? The end goal here is improving performance than reclaiming storage space for the server.
What sorts of things do you all do? When I checked in with Kace support about this, the tech was pretty vague so I thought I'd check with other experienced users of the SMA. Thanks in advance.
Answers (1)
At first: I am happy that you liked the UserKON. (it was great indeed)
If you delete database entries this will not reclaim much space, tbh.
First and foremost: create a full backup and export it.
Then you can start!
1. go through all MI, Scripts and File Syncs to check if they are still needed and if not, delete it. In the same breath you can update to the latest versions if they are still used (recently seen a box where a 10 years old Firefox was a default install)
2. go through Smart Labels since any Smart Label is a SQL query so it speeds the box up to have few but on point instead of a full Zoo of it. You also should check if you can rework some (with experience of the box likely you would do something different today, I did at least ;) )
3. you CAN go through the DB and sort for Software which is installed on 0 devices and delete them. I suggest to do this manually, if you are not 100% sure how a Custom Ticket Rule can do it.
4. go through any Detect and Deploy and rethink how to improve it (best practices is to run the least amount of Detect and/or Deploys on one system, so a Detect and Deploy which installs all patches on some devices is better than a Detect and Deploy of SOME patches to all devices, so if you want to split split it for locations or functions and not for patches)
5. if you have remote locations think of repl shares
6. if this is legal in your country you should also review your Service Desk if old SR can be archived and/or deleted
If this is done and you are unsure what can be done better (or want to save the time for yourself) you can book a health check with KACE Professional Services. https://support.quest.com/kace-systems-management-appliance/professional-services/298
Comments:
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Thanks! Along the lines of your point #3, do you recommend going through the patch catalog and deleting out patches that are for example 6 months or older and don't match any devices? - agibbons 3 years ago
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no, just the Software Items.
The background is that patches are coming from 3rd party and sometimes ancient patches become "applicable" again and then a new item is created which is unnessesary. If you use the default settings (since 5.5 avaiable) to download only Patches detected as missing and autodelete them after lets say 90days (if a new system comes in and needs them the patch is simply redownloaded) keeps your footprint small.
And I nearly forgot a 7th step:
Depending HOW OLD the appliance is, I suggest to refresh it all ~3 years (export the backups after the points above, note the license key, shutdown the old appliance, setup a new one and restore the backup) This also keeps the footprint of the underlying OS small. As an Example: new install after going to 11.0 and then after 13.0 or similar. Why? The images are regulary reviewed and modified to fit the needs better. From my long experience this also supresses some strange issues you may discover. If you are unsure, support can help you here. - Nico_K 3 years ago-
Thank you! This is a great help. Hopefully it will help others as well. - agibbons 3 years ago
