[Opensim-dev] AssetServer Observations and Suggestions

[Melanie]

Hi,

I think while some alternate scenarios are possible, the real 
solution lies in pure "storage providers" that a user subscribes to, 
and which are grid-independent, or in local storage on the user's 
hard disk.

In the interim, we should maybe create a means to determine which 
assets can be discarded. SPecifically, scan eacha nd every prim 
asset to determine referenced textures and content items. Scan each 
region to determine inworld item asset references. Tag all items not 
found, wait a while, then judiciously delete.

Basically, the only resources that a script will reference by UUID 
are textures and sounds. Animations cannot be referenced by UUID, 
neither can other prim objects, unless god mode rez is used.
Wearables can't be referenced by asset ID either, so these will 
always have an inventory item, be it in user inventory or inworld. I 
believe that within about 6 months, equilibrium will be reached, 
e.g. a point where growth in the asset database is proportional to 
the actual number of new items created, rather than just old copies 
of edited items.

Assets on region is a bad idea, IMHO, because it means that region 
operators are responsible for the inventories of users who have no 
region at all, and user inventories would be available only if that 
region happens to be up. in OSGrid, that can't be depended on.

Melanie


Frank Nichols wrote:
> I like the idea of shifting responsibility for user storage costs closer 
> to the user. Region maybe a good place to do this.
> 
> Frank
> 
> Charles Krinke wrote:
>> We have been studying the assets table on OSGrid as it heads toward 
>> the "disk full" stage and I have a couple of observations and am 
>> heading towards a suggestion. Maybe this is already accounted for in 
>> the "Cable Beach" project, at which point, this will only indicate 
>> that I did not read all the exchanges carefully enough.
>>
>> It appears to me that we are storing on the MySQL data store at the 
>> assetServer on a grid every edit of every script, terrainImage and 
>> clothingItem amongst other things. So, my first observation is that we 
>> appear to be storing all the older, obsolete items that can no longer 
>> be accessed.
>>
>> Additionally, it appears to me that we are also storing things that 
>> could arguably be stored on the regions datastore, such as the 
>> terrainImage.
>>
>> Now, to the beginnings of a suggestion. It seems to me that each 
>> avatar will have a "home" region. And that perhaps that is the place 
>> to store the items in an avatars inventory. Things like scripts, 
>> notecards, textures and the like.
>>
>> At that point, the assetServer on a grid could be used to store only 
>> pointers (or URL's) to each avatars inventory on his or her home region.
>>
>> So, by doing that, we start shifting the ever increasing disk storage 
>> requirements of a grid back to the regions distributed around the 
>> internet.
>>
>> Again, perhaps Cable Beach is already doing this, and if so, this is 
>> great. If not, I put out these ideas and duck as the tomatoes start 
>> flying.
>>
>> Charles
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