Picking the server(s) to run the Dircat task

A server that runs the Dircat task (a Dircat server) should:

• Have enough disk space to store local replicas of the source Domino® Directories that are aggregated, if you choose to store the directories locally on the server, rather than have the server access them over the network.
• Have enough disk space to store the resulting aggregated directory catalog(s) and full-text indexes. Only condensed Directory Catalogs have full-text indexes by default.
• Be able to replicate the directory catalog(s) it aggregates to any servers and clients that will use them.

Typically it is best to run the Dircat task to build and maintain a directory catalog on a server in one domain, and then replicate the directory catalog to servers throughout an organization that need to use the directory catalog. Using this approach, rather than having each domain build an maintain its own version of the directory catalog, is beneficial because only one server then does the CPU-intensive Dircat processing of the directory catalog. Aggregate the primary Domino® Directory of the domain in which you build the directory catalog so that servers in other domains can use the directory catalog to look up information from the directory.

The Dircat task on one server can process more than one directory catalog. The Dircat task is single-threaded so it processes directory catalogs sequentially rather than simultaneously. Because Dircat is a CPU-intensive task, it's often beneficial to dedicate one server solely to Dircat processing.