MineSight® Data Security System Synchronization

8/13/2019 MineSight® Data Security System Synchronization

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Unsure whether or not your MineSight

3-D (MS3D) object or model is

the latest “ocial” one for your

planning and decision making? Not sure

who has an MS3D object open? Do you

experience object le corrupon? Is the

daily or weekly task of manually copying

les across the network reducing your

eciency? Does your network MS3D

Project slow to a crawl on start up or when

trying to apply changes?

If you answered “yes” to any one of these

quesons, then a site implementaon

of MineSight Data Security System and

Synchronizaon (DSS/Synch) will solve

your problem(s). This product consists of

two parts: the DSS allows you to manage

access to MS3D project resource les;

Synch is a collecon of soware and

techniques that provides fast access to

data stored on a network.

The DSS provides condence that your

mine’s data is managed safely and

eciently—from small sites to large mul-

user environments. The DSS controls user access and

permissions to all MS3D objects (project resource

les) within the DSS HUB (Figure 1). Every MS3D

object loaded to the centralized hub has a unique

reference idener. This enables the DSS to control

and monitor objects that are checked out (Borrowed),

objects that are checked in (Submied), and all user

authories on the managed data objects.

Synch allows MS3D projects to be accessed on local

workstaons rather than across your network. It provides full

mirroring or synchronizaon of projects, either to the DSS

Hub or any other locaon on your network, for sharing or

archival purposes.

You are not alone when it comes to sharing data or even

complete projects across your site. In fact, it is a very

common pracce to share local directories or drives, to

store MS3D projects on network le servers, and to copy

large les manually trying to keep the model up-to-date.

These pracces oen lead to sluggish MS3D performan

unnecessary bandwidth consumpon, and a high risk of data lo

We cannot stress enough, the DANGER of mulple instan

of MS3D simultaneously accessing a project. Mulple

instances of accessing data will likely result in le corrup

The combinaon of DSS/Synch increases the performance

MS3D and the reliability of secure, archived “ocial” data

DSS Overview

The DSS Manager (Figure 2) is the department administrat

tool to manage the DSS. Within the DSS Manager, you cre

and manage users and their privileges to access objects

classes, le structure, registraon of historic or new les, a

other system parameters.

A MineSight Specialist will create your inial database or D

Hub. Subsequently, you can either connect to an exisng D

database or create a new database via the DSS Manager.

MineSight® Data Security System

Synchronization

Figure 1. Overview of the DSS Data Hub



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The DSS Hub

Upon successfully connecng to the database, six addional

tabs will be displayed.

The Data Structure tab is used to manage the Class/Type/

Status/Category available to the DSS. User permissions are

based on the Class designaon which is the uppermost level

of classicaon.

The Class, along with other classicaons, is added via a

right-click menu (Figure 3).

Managing User Authories

Managing user permissions (changing or adding addional

users) no longer requires a “Work Request” to your IT

department. The DSS Manager Users tab controls the names

and privileges of MS3D DSS users (Figure 4).

Adding users with Microso® Windows Authencaon makes

use of the Acve Directory Group created at the onset of the

DSS setup.

You can see from the example in Figure 4, we decided it

wasn’t a good idea for our friend “Monty” to have delete

access to the Layout Objects.

Synch Overview

Synch provides three main benets:

1) Fast access to projects loaded on a network.

2) Reliable, automated data management.3) Quick implementaon of backup/recovery.

Synch ulizes Unison, a le synchronizaon tool for Unix

and Microso Windows developed by the University of

Pennsylvania. The tool can be downloaded from their web

site and the conguraon parameters set up by Mintec,

Inc. personnel. Mintec does not redistribute this soware,

but has determined the best approach to use in seng up

and ulizing Unison in the MineSight environment. Synch

uses a specic conguraon of the Unison parameters

le customized for MineSight. It allows two replicas of a

collecon of les and directories to be stored on dierenthosts (or dierent disks on the same host). Each replica can

be modied separately and then updated by propagang the

changes to each replica.

Due to IT restricons, some sites have the burden of working

on projects over the network. Large projects can take in

excess of 15 minutes to start in MS3D. Addionally, sites with

large block models can take a long me to update.

When using Synch, you no longer have to access your

project over the network, but can work on a replica

Figure 2. The DSS Manager

Figure 3. Adding a Class to a Folder



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on your local workstaon. This signicantly improves

start up and access me as we will show in some

examples below.

There is a common need for mulple users to have

access to the latest “ocial” version of project data.

Using Unison in the familiar Star Topology (Figure 5), a

large model only needs to be fully copied to aworkstaon one me. Aer that, daily updates to the

replicas only reect any changes that were made from

the Master. This results in reliable, fast, lightweight

performance hits on the network and ensures all users

have the necessary informaon to make valuable

business decisions.

In Table 1, on the following page, are some performance

comparisons using a 3.5 GB project working over the

network and working locally with DSS/Synch. Times are

given in minutes and seconds.

As menoned, the main advantage of using Synch is that youcan work locally on your model and merge the changes into

the master copy on the network. Copying an enre model to

the network can be painful. As tested on the project above,

it took 13:38 minutes. Using Synch, the rst me is similar

but subsequent updang only occurs for actual changes to

the model. Thus, instead of manually copying the enre

model to a shared desnaon or mulple workstaons,

Synch updates the model in a fracon of the me.

Synch also provides safe and ecient replicaon. It can be

automated at startup, logo, or shutdown, and can also be

run manually at your convenience. Not only can it be set upto backup MS3D les, it can backup any other set of

directories or les dened in either a centralized locaon or

mulple desnaons.

While the use of DSS improves the security of MS3D and

its “ocial” objects, it also provides a centralized area for

site IT departments to do daily backups. Addional use of

Synch techniques allows easy backup and centralizaon of

all other data/sengs from local MS3D projects.

DSS/Synch were recently implemented at a large client site.

Their old conguraon employed the “working on projects

over the network” architecture. Of course, an immediateimprovement in MS3D performance working with a local

project and MS3D objects hosted on the DSS Hub was

noced.

At the same time, a backup strategy using Synch was

implemented. Their local projects were replicated to a

central file server so that the site IT could easily execute

their backup/recovery plan on the file server rather than

on 20+ engineering workstations. Fortunately, we had

begun implementation on Monday, as on Tuesday one ofFigure 5. Star Topology

Figure 4. Managing User permissions



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the workstation operating systems took an unfortunate

turn of events.

We were able to reinstall MineSight and recover the

synchronized project directory so that the client did not lose

one item from their local project.

Table 1. Comparison of project access mes: Network vs. DSS/Synch

ActionElapsed time (MM:SS)

ImprovementOver Network DSS/Synch

Open project in MS3D 04:05 00:06 97.6%

Changing model range 22:00 00:30 97.7%

Update grade in one block 13:25 00:01 99.9%

Figure 6. An unfortunate turn of events for workstaon op. systems

C O N C L U S I O N

The use of the DSS/Synch allows operations with many users to access a

centralized, common data set and maintain this data with proven databasesecurity management. This combination also enables you to meet the various

requirements placed upon your backup and recovery plans. Authenticated users in your

respective departments cannot only maintain (modify, replicate, and update) their own

data, but can view all other data from other departments. This greatly aids the planning

process, and guarantees that everyone is viewing the most up-to-date data.

If your site would benefit from the implementation of DSS/Synch, please contact Mintec

to request more detailed information. This will be your first step in determining a siteimplementation and pricing.

TEL: 520.795.3891

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MineSight® Data Security System Synchronization