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  • Effective date: September 1, 2023

    ● Current software version: 3.11.6.4

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○ As a reminder, the software is free. If you need help from JUKI installing it, please contact the service department for a quote. We can typically do this remotely, but can also arrange a service visit.

○ Upgrade notes:

■  This version has significant changes to the database structure. The installation of the upgrade will be relatively quick, like most upgrades, but after the upgrade is done it can take several minutes (can be 30 minutes or more) to upgrade the database. Be sure to plan enough time for the full process.

■  See note below about database maintenance, which can help with the database upgrade time.

■  Due to the database changes, the performance of the system can be a little slower than previous versions if the AutoSMD server is not up to our current specifications. In short, the recommended CPU has a CPU benchmark of approximately 22,000 (check your CPU benchmark at www.cpubenchmark.net) and SSDs are highly recommended. See detailed specs here: Specifications document

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  • ● Archiving – as systems age, we have seen databases grow substantially. An archive function was introduced in version 3.9 to remove unused items from the database to keep the system performance up. Archiving of reels has to be enabled in the userconf.xml and also in the settings. Reels are archived when they satisfy the following 4 requirements:
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1.- The reel is frozen

2.- The reel is not in an active session

3.- The reel is OUT (not in a tower, 500, or external storage)

4.- The reel has not had any changes in the past X days (the specific number is settable in the userconf.xml fileTo enabled archiving, refer to the userconf.xml instructions and Setup/Other Settings screen. Below is an example of the archive section for userconf.xml that will archive frozen, out reels after 100 days of no activity:

<archive>

    <enabled>true</enabled>

    <reels>

        <archive_after_inactivity_days>100</archive_after_inactivity_days>

        <picture_traceability>

            <enabled>false</enabled>

            <path>C:\Archive</path>

        </picture_traceability>

    </reels>

</archive>

    ·         About archiving –

○ Archived reels get moved to a separate database. They are not deleted.

○ Once archieved, a reel cannot be moved back to the main database.

○ You can use the Archive Explorer to view all details of archived reels.

The archive configuration screen looks like this (refer to the Console manual for more details). You can set the time of day to run the archiving (system performance will be slower during this time so its recommended to do it when the towers are not heavily used), and also days of the week.

 

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  • ● Database maintenance – in addition to archiving, it can be helpful to backup and restore the database periodically. This will help remove unnecessary items from the database and reduce the overall size. In one example, a customer’s database was reduced from 2.5GB to 850MB using this procedure.
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○   To run the backup/restore, do the following:

■   Plan for approximately 1 hour of down time

■   On the AutoSMD server, open Windows services

■   Find the AutoSMD server service and click “stop”. This stops all activity by the console software so no insertions, extractions, or new reel creation can be performed.

■   Open File Explorer

■   Browse to C:\AutoSMD\Database

■   Copy the file db.fdb

■   Paste the file db.fdb to a backup location, or paste to the same folder and give the file a name such ask “backup db (date).fdb

■   Open a command prompt

■   Change directory to the Firebird folder using this command: cd C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_3_0

■   Run the following to command to backup the database:

gbak -v -t -user SYSDBA -password masterkey c:\autosmd\database\db.fdb c:\autosmd\database\db.bak

■   Rename the file db.fdb to db original.fdb

■   Run the following command to restore the backup you made:

gbak -c -r -v -rep -user SYSDBA -password masterkey -FIX_FSS_METADATA WIN1252 -FIX_FSS_DATA WIN1252 c:\autosmd\database\db.bak c:\autosmd\database\db.fdb

■   Close the command prompt

■   Restart the AutoSMD server service

 

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• • ● Userconf setting for better performance:
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○   In order to improve the system performance, it is recommended to have the following lines in the userconf.xml file (On the server in C:\AutoSMD\Server\userconf.xml)

 

    <usermessage>

            <max_messages_to_console>200</max_messages_to_console>
            <keep_messages_for_days>90</keep_messages_for_days>

    </usermessage>

 

○   REMEMBER that any time you edit the userconf.xml it’s a good idea to make a backup first (in case something goes wrong) AND you MUST restart the AutoSMD server service on the server PC. Restarting the AutoSMD service will cause all users to be kicked out of the system so it should be scheduled at a time when you are not inserting or extracting any kits and have 5-15 minutes free to stop.

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• ● Server scheduled weekly restarts
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○   It is recommended to restart the server weekly to ensure optimal performance. Refer to the linked document below on how to setup automatic weekly server restarts.

○   https://jas-smt.sharefile.com/d-sf10f55585b744111bdd33c6153405cf9