When you first connect an environment, EaseLog has a backlog to work through: every audit record from your Audit Log Start Date up to now. Initial (Backlog) Data Export changes how that backlog is fetched.
Where it is
- Select Environments in the left navigation.
- Select the edit control on the environment's card.
- Select Schedule. The toggle is at the bottom.
Figure 1. The Schedule tab of the Edit Environment panel, showing Audit Log Start Date, First Execution Time, Frequency and the Initial Backlog Data Export toggle.
The description reads Time windows for parallel data export.
What it does
EaseLog splits the work into chunks, each covering one audit window. See Chunks and Audit Windows.
Normally those chunks are worked through in sequence. With Initial (Backlog) Data Export enabled, EaseLog runs several time windows in parallel instead, so the historical catch up finishes sooner.
Defining the time slots
When the toggle is on, you define the hours in which the parallel export is allowed to run. You can set up to four time slots.
Figure 2. Step 3, Configure Schedule, showing the Audit Log Start Date with its live record and database size preview, First Execution, Frequency, the Initial Data Export time slots and the weekend option.
Each slot takes a start and an end time. Use the add control to add a slot, and the remove control to take one away.
Slots let you confine the heavy work to hours when Dynamics 365 is quiet, for example overnight, so the catch up does not compete with your users during the working day.
Run continuously on weekends
Below the slots there is a second option, Run continuously on weekends, which ignores the slot hours on Saturday and Sunday and exports non stop all weekend.
This is often the best of both worlds. Keep the weekday slots narrow so the business is unaffected, then let the backlog run flat out across the weekend when nobody is working.
Its setting is reflected in the wizard Summary as Weekend Export, which reads either Follows slot hours or the continuous option.
When to turn it on
Turn it on when you have a large history to bring across and you want it sooner, for example:
- You have just connected an environment with years of audit history.
- You moved Audit Log Start Date further back and created a new backlog.
- You are preparing for an audit and need the history in place by a date.
When to leave it off
Parallel fetching asks more of Dynamics 365 in the same period of time. If that environment is busy, or already shows Throttled, running in parallel will make throttling more likely rather than less.
Leave it off when the backlog is small, or when the environment is under load and you would rather the catch up took longer than affected anything else.
Watching it work
Open Queue Overview for the environment. With parallel export running you will see several chunks in progress at once rather than one at a time. See The Queue Overview Page.
Note
This affects the historical backlog. Once an environment has caught up, ongoing syncs follow the Frequency you set. See Changing the Sync Schedule.