Understanding the effect of large databases on IBM® Lotus® Domino® performance is becoming a prominent challenge for many administrators. This article explores the different ways in which large databases can degrade performance and examines potential solutions to realize maximum performance.
There is already a good deal of documentation that deals with general performance, but it’s predicated largely on the underlying assumption that Lotus Domino performance is based solely on the number of transactions. Experience has indicated that the challenges associated with performance have shifted to a different type of usage that does not necessarily follow the traditional assumptions.
One of the main problem areas is that the size and amount of mail being transferred and stored are both much greater than what was once considered the norm. In many environments, Lotus Domino has become the focus for distribution, document management, and storage in addition to the role of traditional messaging. In essence, the complexity of the Lotus Domino environment has increased to keep up with the needs of our customers. As a result, mail files are bigger now than ever, and we can safely assume that they will continue to grow.
Some customers are struggling with overall growth of mail files as they try to determine what to do with the data and how the growth is affecting performance. There might be a single user (or group of users) with a 10 GB mail file, or there can be a large number of large mail files, with each scenario driven by the needs of the business. There is limited information about the effects this growth can have on system performance, so administrators can take remedial actions without a good understanding of how performance will be affected.
Some of the common questions that arise are these:
* What do larger mail file sizes mean in terms of current and optimal tuning configuration?
* Is it true that a couple of large mail files can dramatically affect performance for the other users?
* How do larger mail file sizes affect system resources?
This article explores these and other questions by testing various configurations and examining how they affect overall performance.
via How large databases uniquely affect IBM Lotus Domino server performance.
