This article describes how to safety remove various data files and other reports that can accumulate on the host machine running the SNIP NTRIP Caster.  In general terms, files with raw data from a Base stations can and should be removed on machines with limited disk space.  Other files (such as prior weekly logs) should be kept to allow more comprehensive reports from the Caster.

You may occasionally see an console error message (or receive one by eMail if you have the eMail Plug-In active) that state words similar to:

This is tested at start-up and every 12 hour thereafter.  These messages inform you that the number of files saved by SNIP in its various folders have exceeded the threshold you have set.  Upon receiving this message, the Caster operators should make time to review the files contents and and remove those files that are no longer needed.

Where is the data stored…

The default location to store data files is the path  …\SNIP\bin\data folder path.  For most installation this is located on the ‘C’ drive at:  C:\Program Files (x86)\SNIP\bin\data  You can change this location using  the Log Settings dialog.  Use the menu command: Misc ⇒ Data File Settings…  to bring this up.

• This dialog also allows you to compress and send these base station data files to a remote FTP site.  A a rule for those who wish to keep large files, compressed off site storage is generally easier to manage.
• This dialog also allows you to set the time period for each file, 24 hours is typical but short times (and hence more files produced) can also be used.

It is the total number and size of the files found here (and in the folders within) that are reported by SNIP.
You set the threshold used for reporting as part of the Auto Report Settings dialog.  Thresholds can be set for both the number of files and the overall disk space remaining on the host.

What is found there

Raw RTCM Files

The larger files are likely to be raw data files or your base stations (typically binary RTCM3 messages, but any content can be captured).  These are typically created at a rate of one per day per station unless you set a different rate.  Some deployments use this data to convert to RINEX files for other uses.

These files all have names like BASE_YYMMDD.dat and you can remove as many as you like.  If you have made the file duration shorter, it may be named like BASE_YYMMDD_a.dat   These follow GNSS and RINEX conventions to some degree, and the times are all in given UTC.  You can delete any of these with no loss to SNIP.

How do you know if a Base Station data stream is being logged?   You control this for each stream using the right-click context pop up menu for the stream and selecting (or not) the item marked Log Raw Data.

Note: SNIP defaults to saving log files on some data streams when created.  We have been asked to change this behavior to ‘not log’ and have done so for the next release (Rev 3.07) onward.  In addition there is now a visual ‘back slash’ image behind the input cell for a stream (and a tool-tip), if the stream is being logged.

Prior HTML Report files

You can also delete all files found in /SNIP/bin/data/SNIPpages where there will be many small files, used to create various web page and document reports.  These are typically very small.

Backup Files

The files found in /SNIP/bin/data/SNIPbackups are your zipped backup files, you probably want to copy some of these to another location for safety before deleting those you do not need.  The Backup setting dialog allows you to control how many of these are kept and when they are removed.

Files not to delete

Some of these files, like those in  /SNIP/bin/data/SNIPlogs, should not be deleted.  These save your long term weekly logs and records and are used by SNIP when you do various reports.   Large deployments may compress them but typically do want to keep them around for analysis use.  SNIP also updates various files (user and customer accounts, and various run time logs) in the /bin folder which you should never touch.

Some additional details about the various logging files used by SNIP can be found in this article discussing the backup process.