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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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