What is the difference between master vault, replica vault and cache vault?

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hello,

I am a new user of Windchill PDMLink. I am exploring the file vault topic and have read some User Guides, 

1. I read the concepts master vaults , replica vault and cache vaults but in that I am getting confused in the difference

2. So, I am not getting that, when to use master vault, when to use replica and when to use cache vault.

Could anyone guide me further on this

Thank You in advance.

Sumit Patil

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

Master Vault is where ALL of your files are stored.

Replica Vault is used at a remote site to maintain local copies of the files from the Master Vault. You need a remote file server for a replica vault. There are rules that can be established as to retrieval and saving locations for the remote workers. You can also control the replication/sync timing.

Cache Vault is the temporary server storage location files when you save. The files are saved to the Cache Vault, then moved/copied to the final master vault folder.

Master Vaults must be established, created, mounted and verified to Windchill, They have a corresponding physical disk location on your system. Could be a local disk or a NAS.

Replica Vaults are only needed if you have remote locations and you have a latency issue. Some companies have remote locations and do not use replica vaults. I have local users (in the same building) and remote users (7 miles away) and I do not use a replica server as we have good fiber optic lines between the sites.

Cache Vault is established OOTB by Windchill. You can move it if you need to.

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hi Ben,

     Thank you for your response.

     Now I got an idea what exactly it is. I want to ask you one more question, if you could tell me, it would be helpful to me,

1. I have created a vault in a master vault other than "defaultsystemvault", mounted it, created folder for it. and set its as a "Default target" and also validated it.

2. Now, I created one document from windchill UI, when I I attached one file with that document object, that file is storing in a "defaultuploadvault" instead of the vault I configured.

3. So, Please can you tell me why is it happening, and where am I doing wrong?

Thank you in advance.

Sumit Patil

[BenLoosli]

When you save a file it goes into the upload vault.

You also need to have Windchill configured to use file vaults, which is OFF by default.

In order for the file to actually get to the master vault location, you need to check in that file.

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hi Ben,

     Thank you again for response.

I have configured the two vaults:

1. First is 'newvault' in master vaults and set is as default target

2. Second is 'cachevault' in replica vaults and set is as default target

now when I create a document with the content file it is being stored in 'cachevault' vault but not in a 'newvault' vault.

I am sending the snap of my vault configuration.

Thank You

Sumit Patil

[TomU]

Take a look at these two properties:

• wt.fv.forceContentToVault=true
• wt.fv.useVaultsForAllContent

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hi Tom,

     Thank you for your prompt response.

In wt.properties file wt.fv.forceContentToVault value is set to 'false' and wt.fv.useVaultsForAllContent is set to 'true'. Is there any need to get changed in those properties?

Thank you

Sumit Patil

[BenLoosli]

wt.fv.forceContentToVault=true must be set in order for content to go into the vaults.

With it set to false, your data is being stored in the DB in a BLOB.

Once you have changed the setting and restarted Windchill, you will need to create a new document and check it in to test the change.

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hi Ben,

Thank you very much for your response, Now it worked for me. Thank you for this great discussion.

Thank you

Sumit Patil

[TomU]

I prefer wt.fv.forceContentToVault=true because then the cache vault is completely bypassed.

Here is a good article explaining the difference between the two:  https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS68929

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hi Tom,

    Thank you for response. In my vault configuration, there are two vaults, 'defaultsystemvault' and 'newvault', so, when i try to set wt.fv.forceContentToVault=true, it is giving an error in method server logs as,

wt.util.WTException: System property wt.fv.forceContentToVault is set to TRUE. This property may not be set to TRUE if there is more than one local vault across all sites. Please set the property to FALSE or remove the extra vaults.

so,I tried to remove 'newvault' from master vaults, but, i am getting an exception as,

wt.util.WTException: Cannot delete: Folder contains one or more items

could you please help me for this

Thank you

Sumit Patil

[TomU]

You would have to run a revaulting process to move the data to whichever vault you want to keep.  Full instructions are available here: https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS124088

[spatil-10-11-121]

Hi Tom,

Thank you very very much for your precious time and response. It was very nice discussion.

It worked for me

Thank you

Sumit Patil

[amarjit]

We have set the property useVaultsforAllContent as true and configured only one Master Vault till now.

When the data is uploaded first it get loaded in Cache vault and then sync to the Master vault through synchronization.

But its Copy process and not move , is it the Ideal scenario or we have to set any property for the Move as its duplicate.

[ivan_feofilov]

To save budget instead of local disks, you can use:

• Azure blobs 
• AWS S3 buckets

[amarjit]

 Yes the storage is one perspective.

But why the data is present in both the cache vault & Master vault with the same file name.

Is the Windchill moves the data or copy in my scenario I observe copy process but not all files are present in the both the location.

Could you explain the process?