* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Nantucket Dance Festival opens July 8 – The Inquirer and Mirror

    Nantucket Dance Festival Launches with Thrilling Performances Beginning July 8

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse Netflix and YRF Entertainment’s ‘Mandala Murders’ Premieres July 25 – About Netflix

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse: Dive into the Chilling World of ‘Mandala Murders’ Premiering July 25

    Susquehanna Raises Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN) Price Target. – Yahoo Finance

    Susquehanna Raises Price Target for Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN)

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    Netflix unveils Dallas immersive venue for fans of hit shows like ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Stranger Things’ – Houston Chronicle

    Step Inside Netflix’s New Dallas Immersive Experience Featuring Hits Like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Stranger Things

    ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’: Civic Players bring ‘Young Frankenstein’ to life – Yahoo

    Civic Players Deliver a Hilarious and Unforgettable Performance of ‘Young Frankenstein

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    New center coming to Mizzou will focus on energy research and technology – Columbia Missourian

    Mizzou Launches Innovative New Center Dedicated to Energy Research and Technology

    Mirrors in space and underwater curtains: can technology buy us enough time to save the Arctic ice caps? – The Guardian

    Can Technology Like Space Mirrors and Underwater Curtains Buy Us Time to Save the Arctic Ice Caps?

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Emerging Memory and Storage Technology Market Analysis Report 2025-2034 | AI and HPC Boom Fuels Surging Demand for Fast, Low-Power Memory Devices – Yahoo Finance

    How AI and HPC Are Driving Explosive Growth in Fast, Low-Power Memory Technologies Through 2034

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Nantucket Dance Festival opens July 8 – The Inquirer and Mirror

    Nantucket Dance Festival Launches with Thrilling Performances Beginning July 8

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse Netflix and YRF Entertainment’s ‘Mandala Murders’ Premieres July 25 – About Netflix

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse: Dive into the Chilling World of ‘Mandala Murders’ Premiering July 25

    Susquehanna Raises Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN) Price Target. – Yahoo Finance

    Susquehanna Raises Price Target for Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN)

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    Netflix unveils Dallas immersive venue for fans of hit shows like ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Stranger Things’ – Houston Chronicle

    Step Inside Netflix’s New Dallas Immersive Experience Featuring Hits Like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Stranger Things

    ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’: Civic Players bring ‘Young Frankenstein’ to life – Yahoo

    Civic Players Deliver a Hilarious and Unforgettable Performance of ‘Young Frankenstein

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    New center coming to Mizzou will focus on energy research and technology – Columbia Missourian

    Mizzou Launches Innovative New Center Dedicated to Energy Research and Technology

    Mirrors in space and underwater curtains: can technology buy us enough time to save the Arctic ice caps? – The Guardian

    Can Technology Like Space Mirrors and Underwater Curtains Buy Us Time to Save the Arctic Ice Caps?

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Emerging Memory and Storage Technology Market Analysis Report 2025-2034 | AI and HPC Boom Fuels Surging Demand for Fast, Low-Power Memory Devices – Yahoo Finance

    How AI and HPC Are Driving Explosive Growth in Fast, Low-Power Memory Technologies Through 2034

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

Toyota car plant outage shows database capacity planning is vital

September 20, 2023
in Technology
Toyota car plant outage shows database capacity planning is vital
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

How could database deletes and re-organisation take out car production for 36 hours at 14 plants? We drill down into the details of database capacity planning

Antony Adshead

By

Antony Adshead,
Storage Editor

Published: 20 Sep 2023

Insufficient disk space on database servers was the cause of Toyota car production grinding to a halt for 36 hours at 14 plants in Japan late in August.

But just how does such a situation arise? What’s pretty likely here is a failure in database capacity planning and to provide for sufficient storage.

That’s an activity that might often go under the radar of the C-suite, but if things go wrong, the result will be keenly felt. Any estimates of what lost production at 14 Toyota plants for a day and half is worth must be pretty hefty.

So, what happened? Toyota put out a press release that stated a cyber attack was not to blame. Instead, it said: “The system malfunction was caused by the unavailability of some multiple servers that process parts orders,” which is a critical part of the lean/just-in-time production system for which Toyota is famous. “[R]egular maintenance work was performed on August 27, the day before the malfunction occurred. During the maintenance procedure, data that had accumulated in the database was deleted and organised, and an error occurred due to insufficient disk space, causing the system to stop.”

The press release went on to say: “Since these servers were running on the same system, a similar failure occurred in the backup function.”

Key here is what looks like a failure in database capacity planning. That would be the likely issue if data in a database was “deleted and organised” (presumably meaning “reorganised”) because deletion of data does not result in a smaller database file and may even see it grow.

In addition, the basic risk mitigation measure of separating production and backup storage also seems to have been overlooked, but we’ll leave that aside for the time being.

Database sizing – prediction of database storage needs – and capacity planning, which is the practice of ongoing provision of the required storage capacity, are core skills for database administrators.

Capacity planning is more complex than the layperson might imagine because the size of database files does not just grow and shrink according to need without further impacts.

To start with, a (relational) database is not just a database. “A database” does consist of a database file in which allocated rows and columns and multiple and connected tables are defined. But, there are also temporary files, such as SQL Server’s TempDB files. There are also indexes to allow for rapid access to particular frequently used rows, log files that record all database activity, and backups created by the database and associated applications.

Also, different suppliers’ database systems have different implementations of these basic elements and can occupy different volumes of storage capacity for the same nominal database size.

A 20,000 node (host, server, etc.), 20GB database file size in SQL Server, for example, requires 46GB when log files, TempDB files and backups are taken into account. The equivalent database file size in Oracle and PostgreSQL would take up 90GB and 26GB respectively.

The issue with deletes in a database – which Toyota identified as a cause in its problems – is that a database delete does not reduce file size. If a row is removed, its allocated space is not removed. It’s just marked as unused. Database size is set when it is originally configured and periodically reset through its lifetime, but the key thing is that space is allocated and it stays that way, primarily to make sure storage needs are not suddenly overwhelmed by huge bouts of shrinkage and growth. It’s pretty much an in-stone commandment of the DBA world that databases never shrink.

Log and temp files

Then there are the log and temp files, which can suddenly balloon in volume with a spike in transactions, such as during the deletes and reorganisation Toyota alluded to and during maintenance in general. We have no way of knowing if that’s what actually happened to Toyota, but it’s a theoretical possibility.

Further to this are the potential for replication and snapshots to add to storage capacity requirements. Meanwhile, increased disk utilisation can result in longer access times and RAID configurations can add to storage volume growth.

A further implication of Toyota’s (limited) explanation points to some other possible basic failings. These include that temp files may not have been on separate drives, which is a recommended best practice, that backups were on the same drives as production data (not recommended), and even that production system database storage was on direct-attached server storage. We don’t know if the latter was the case – it may have been on perfectly adequate server or hyper-converged infrastructure, in theory – but high-performance shared SAN storage is very well-suited to critical database deployments.

Overall, we’ve had to speculate a fair bit here. Toyota’s communication was quite candid, but there’s lots we don’t know. The bottom line is that the company failed somehow to plan properly for growth in database size for some critical systems, and that’s a lesson lots of organisations can take on board.

Read more on Data protection, backup and archiving


Toyota outage shows not all backup failures are ransomware

TimMcCarthy

By: Tim McCarthy


slack space (file slack space)

RahulAwati

By: Rahul Awati


Cost-effective snapshot management tips and strategies

DanSullivan

By: Dan Sullivan


Lines blur between structured and unstructured data storage

DanSullivan

By: Dan Sullivan

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Computer Weekly – https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Toyota-car-plant-outage-shows-database-capacity-planning-is-vital

Tags: Planttechnologytoyota
Previous Post

Organisations failing to proactively address insider cyber risk

Next Post

Datacentre operators ‘hesitant’ over how to proceed with server farm builds as AI hype builds

Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

July 2, 2025
NBA’s Malik Beasley sued for $2.25M by sports agency for breach of contract, alleged unpaid loan amid federal gambling probe – Yahoo Sports

NBA’s Malik Beasley sued for $2.25M by sports agency for breach of contract, alleged unpaid loan amid federal gambling probe – Yahoo Sports

July 2, 2025
He’s searching for a human-made problem in areas largely untouched by humans. Answers are just emerging – CNN

He’s searching for a human-made problem in areas largely untouched by humans. Answers are just emerging – CNN

July 1, 2025
Asteroid 2024 YR4 might smash into the moon – Popular Science

Urgent Alert: Asteroid 2024 YR4 Headed Straight for the Moon!

July 1, 2025
These 9 towns were named the ‘quirkiest’ in New Jersey, according to World Atlas – Bergen Record

These 9 towns were named the ‘quirkiest’ in New Jersey, according to World Atlas – Bergen Record

July 1, 2025
Trump’s Tax Bill Won’t Help or Hurt the Economy. The Deficit Is Already Huge. – Barron’s

Trump’s Tax Bill Won’t Help or Hurt the Economy. The Deficit Is Already Huge. – Barron’s

July 1, 2025
Nantucket Dance Festival opens July 8 – The Inquirer and Mirror

Nantucket Dance Festival Launches with Thrilling Performances Beginning July 8

July 1, 2025
Who would be affected by health care cuts in Senate version of Trump’s budget bill – PBS

Who Will Be Hit Hardest by Health Care Cuts in the Senate’s Trump Budget Plan?

July 1, 2025
Senate passes Trump’s reconciliation bill with Vance casting tie-breaking vote – PBS

Senate Passes Trump’s Reconciliation Bill After Vance Casts Decisive Tie-Breaking Vote

July 1, 2025
Groundbreaking technology to help police tackle violence against women – The Independent

Revolutionary Technology Transforms the Fight Against Violence Toward Women

July 1, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (701)
  • Economy (726)
  • Entertainment (21,615)
  • General (15,659)
  • Health (9,766)
  • Lifestyle (731)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (727)
  • Politics (733)
  • Science (15,944)
  • Sports (21,224)
  • Technology (15,711)
  • World (707)

Recent News

Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

July 2, 2025
NBA’s Malik Beasley sued for $2.25M by sports agency for breach of contract, alleged unpaid loan amid federal gambling probe – Yahoo Sports

NBA’s Malik Beasley sued for $2.25M by sports agency for breach of contract, alleged unpaid loan amid federal gambling probe – Yahoo Sports

July 2, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version