The local WINS database should periodically be cleared of released entries and old entries that were registered at another WINS server but did not get removed from this WINS database for some reason. This process, called scavenging, is done automatically over intervals defined by the relationship between the Renewal and Extinct intervals defined in the Configuration dialog box. You can also clean the database manually.
For example, if you want to verify old replicas immediately instead of waiting the time interval specified for verification, you can manually scavenge the database.
The database is cleaned, with the results as shown in the following table.
State before scavenging | State after scavenging |
Owned active names for which the Renewal interval has expired | Marked released |
Owned released name for which the Extinct interval has expired | Marked extinct |
Owned extinct names for which the Extinct timeout has expired | Deleted |
Replicas of extinct names for which the Extinct timeout has expired | Deleted |
Replicas of active names for which the Verify interval has expired | Revalidated |
Replicas of extinct or deleted names | Deleted |
For information about the intervals and timeouts that govern database scavenging, see "Configuring WINS Servers" earlier in this chapter.
After WINS has been running for a while, the database might need to be compacted to improve WINS performance. You should compact the WINS database whenever it approaches 30 MB.
Caution Do not compact the SYSTEM.MDB database.