|  |  | The director uses a push-pull mechanism to collect data for analysis. The data is first written into flat files, which is then pulled into a database. By using the push-pull method, performance and fault tolerance are increased; writing directly to the database is slower and yields lower performance. Through the use of flat files, the data can be directly written to a file, which speeds up the process. The director is not dependent upon the database always being up and operational, therefore it can be configured to automatically archive the flat files.