# Partition Settings

The Partition Settings page lets Portal Administrators specify the number of data partitions that are accessible to Analytics reports. The Analytics Engine regularly scans each data partition that is accessible. For this reason, you can have more control over system performance by limiting the number of accessible partitions to only those that are needed.

Analytics data is segregated into month-by-month partitions in the database. At the beginning of each month, the system creates a new partition and stores all new Analytics data in that partition until the month ends.

To set the number of months that are accessible to Analytics reports, first enable the Scrolling View Window, then specify the number of months.

Note: If you do not enable the Scrolling View Window, all data from all partitions is accessible to Analytics reports.

At any time, you can preview a chart that displays a representation of all partitions and indicates whether they are available or unavailable to Analytics reports.

This topic discusses:

Scrolling View Window Overview
Scrolling View Window Settings
Preview

Scrolling View Window Overview

The Scrolling View Window is a rolling database view that changes month-to-month. For example, suppose that on August 5, you enable the Scrolling View Window and set its size to 4 months. The following occurs:

- The Scrolling View Window makes data from 4 months available: May, June, July, and August. (Note that even though the month of August has not completed, the Scrolling View Window makes data from the August partition available so that the most current data appears in Analytics reports).
- On September 1, the Scrolling View Window scrolls one month forward and makes data from the June, July, August, and September partitions accessible. Though the Scrolling View Window removes the May partition from view, the partition and its data is still stored in the database. In this example, if in December of the same year the Portal Administrator wanted to make the data from the May partition available to reports, he or she would increase the Scrolling View Window size to 8 months so that it includes the May to December time frame.

Scrolling View Window Settings

Setting | Description
Enable Scrolling View Window | Select the check box to make data from the specified number of monthly partitions available to Analytics reports. By default, this box is cleared.
Scrolling View Window Size (months) | Type a number between 3 and 60, in months. Data from monthly partitions that do not fall within the Scrolling View Window size is made unavailable to Analytics reports.

Preview

Click the Preview button to view a representation of monthly partitions in the database:

- Green squares indicate partitions whose data is available to Analytics reports.
- Red squares with an X indicate partitions whose data is unavailable to Analytics reports; these partitions do not exist in the database.
- Grey squares indicate partitions for months that do not currently fall within the Scrolling View Window's date range. These partitions may or may not exist in the database.

Related Topics:

- Runtime Settings
- Security Settings
- Event Registration

To display the page associated with this help topic:

1. Click Administration.
2. From the Select Utility drop-down list, click Analytics Administration.
3. Under Edit Object Settings on the left, click Partition Settings.