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Administering
This documentation provides information about the administration tools for HCL Domino.
Administering with Domino Administrator
This documentation provides information about the administration tools for managing and monitoring servers and databases.
Managing databases
Topics in this section describe how to set up and manage Domino® databases.
Backup and restore
As of Domino 12, functionality to back up and restore Notes databases and their associated transaction logs is provided with Domino servers.
Snapshot backups
You can integrate third-party snapshot backup solutions with Domino backup and restore.

Administering
This documentation provides information about the administration tools for HCL Domino.
- Administering with AdminCentral
  The AdminCentral application (admincentral.nsf) is automatically created by adminP on the Domino administration server. You can open AdminCentral directly from your Notes Standard or Nomad web client, without the need to start Domino Administrator. This application provides a simplified and easy-to-use way of managing fully functional Notes users and groups in a Domino deployment.
- Administering with Domino Administrator
  This documentation provides information about the administration tools for managing and monitoring servers and databases.
  - Administration tools
    Topics in this section describe the tools you can use to administer a Domino® server.
  - Managing users
    The Administration Process helps you manage users by automating many of the associated administrative tasks. For example, if you rename a user, the Administration Process automates changing the name throughout databases in the Notes® domain by generating and carrying out a series of requests, which are posted in the Administration Requests database.
  - Monitoring servers
    This section describes how to use the tools and features that help you monitor a Domino® system.
  - Managing servers
    Manage Domino® servers by performing any of these tasks.
  - Managing databases
    Topics in this section describe how to set up and manage Domino® databases.
    - Database design, management, and administration
      The tasks involved with application design, database design, database management, and Domino® system administration may overlap, depending on the size of your organization and the structure of job responsibilities. In some organizations, an application developer may be responsible for both application and database design, while in others, a database manager may handle all database design and management tasks. In addition, database management overlaps with Domino system administration.
    - Domino on-disk structure (ODS)
      Domino on-disk structure (ODS) refers to the file format of a database. Each release of HCL Domino® and Notes has a default ODS version for databases. A new release may offer a new ODS version that provides database enhancements not available with earlier ODS versions.
    - Increase the document summary data limit to 16 MB
      Starting with Domino 9.0.1 FP8, you can increase the document summary data limit on databases to 16 MB. Databases must be at ODS 52 or higher.
    - Organizing databases on a server
      You can organize databases in folders.
    - Backup and restore
      As of Domino 12, functionality to back up and restore Notes databases and their associated transaction logs is provided with Domino servers.
      - Backup and restore components
        Backup and restore includes the following components.
      - Transaction logging with backup and restore
        Domino transaction logging is required on a Domino server that performs backup and restore.
      - Snapshot backups
        You can integrate third-party snapshot backup solutions with Domino backup and restore.
      - Snapshot backups with Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) writer
        Beginning with HCL Domino 12.0.2, Domino provides a native Windows VSS writer for snapshot backups. VSS writers are designed for application-aware VSS snapshots.
      - DAOS restore
        Domino backup and restore can restore missing or corrupted DAOS attachment objects (NLOs) if they are backed up by a separate DAOS file-level file backup that is Domino-aware.
      - Multi-byte character support
        All backup and restore operations are based on LMBCS (Lotus Multi Byte Character Set). The Backup and Restore server tasks are fully LMBCS aware.
      - FAQs
        Some frequently asked questions about backup and restore.
      - Creating the Backup database
        To create the Backup database (dominobackup.nsf) run the Backup server task.
      - Quick start
        These steps provide a simple example of backing up and restoring log.nsf using file system commands.
      - Completing the Global Configuration document
        The Global Configuration document provides some default settings for backup and restore.
      - Command configuration
        Command is a general concept that refers to configuring backup, restore, and prune operations. There are several types of commands, each of which supports the same options. The commands for backup, restore, and prune operations must match.
      - Setting up backup and restore
        Configure settings related to database backup, database restore, and database prune (removal) of older backed up files.
      - Running the Backup server task
        Back up databases by scheduling the Backup server task to run through a Program document. You can also run Backup at the Domino console using the load backup command.
      - Increasing the default backup timeout limit
        By default, backup of a database times out after 15 minutes. If you have a slow backup architecture or large databases, consider increasing the limit.
      - Restoring databases
        Restore databases from the Database Inventory view of the Backup database. Restoring a database invokes the Restore server task.
      - Enabling third-party restore
        You can integrate the Domino backup database with a third-party restore application to leverage the Domino backup database user-friendly restore interface.
    - Attachment consolidation
      The Domino® server employs the Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) to save significant space at the file level by sharing data identified as identical between databases (applications) on the same server.
    - Full-text indexes for single databases
      You can create full-text indexes to allow users to quickly search for information in databases. To search in a database, users enter a word or phrase in the search bar of the database to locate all documents containing the word or phrase.
    - Controlling attachment indexing on servers
      Use the notes.ini setting FT_INDEX_ATTACHMENTS on a server to control full-text indexing of attachments for all databases on a server.
    - Database libraries
      You can create a database library that contains databases that pertain to a specific collection of users or to a specific topic. For example, a corporate database library might include all databases that deal with corporate policies and procedures, and a marketing database library might include databases that are useful to the marketing staff.
    - Database catalogs
      A database catalog provides a list of all databases on a server. You use the server Catalog task to create a database catalog. The Catalog task bases the catalog file (CATALOG.NSF) on the CATALOG.NTF template and adds the appropriate entries to the catalog's ACL.
    - The Files tab in the Domino® Administrator
      The Files tab in the Domino® Administrator provides an easy way for you to manage files in the Domino data folder.
    - Replicating unread marks
      Unread marks can be replicated for selected databases, most notably mail databases, by using the advanced database properties from the Domino® Administrator or from the database properties box. When you enable the replication of unread marks on mail databases, users can read their mail from a workstation on ServerA, and after replication, can read their mail from a workstation on ServerB, with unread mail clearly delineated from mail that has previously been read.
    - Using indirect files to run database maintenance tasks
      You can use indirect files to run the same maintenance task multiple times, resulting in significant time savings. The fixup, compact, updall, design, convert, and replicate tasks support using indirect files. You can also create batch files or scripts that run several maintenance tasks serially against different indirect files to help complete them quickly. If you have multiple CPUs, you can run the same maintenance tasks against multiple indirect files so they run concurrently. It is recommended you only run as many concurrent maintenance tasks as you have CPUs, otherwise they will start competing for CPU resources and can take longer to complete.
    - Updating database indexes and views
      A view index is an internal filing system that Notes® uses to build the list of documents to display in a database view or folder.
    - Synchronizing databases with master templates
      To use a consistent design for multiple databases, database designers can associate databases or elements within databases with a master template.
    - Fixing corrupted databases
      Corrupted databases don't occur frequently when you use transaction logging. When you use transaction logging to log changes to databases, a server automatically uses the transaction log to restore and recover databases after a system failure -- for example, after server failures or power failures. If a disk failure occurs, you use the transaction log along with a certified backup utility to restore and recover the databases.
    - Moving databases
      It may be necessary to move a database from one server to another -- for example, to distribute databases evenly among servers. If there are replicas of the database, the server to which you move the database should have the appropriate Connection documents to replicate the database to other servers that store replicas. If you're moving a database to a server in a cluster, replication between the server and other servers in the cluster that have replicas of the database occurs without Connection documents.
    - Using load convert to convert non-mail databases
      You can use the server's mail convert utility to convert non-mail databases to another type of non-mail database. Non-mail databases are all databases that do not have a $Inbox folder.
    - Redirecting client references to databases
      You can redirect Notes® client references from deleted or moved databases to a database replica that you specify.
    - Running a database analysis
      A database analysis reveals changes in documents, user activity, and other details such as replication data.

Snapshot backups

You can integrate third-party snapshot backup solutions with Domino backup and restore.

Many backup solutions support snapshot backups that quickly back up all data in a file system, volume, or backend storage, sometimes in seconds. Without snapshot backup integration, the Backup task performs a slower, database-by-database backup. In contrast a snapshot backup works on full file system level, volume or back-end storage level and takes a "snapshot" of the current data. A snapshot usually takes only a couple of seconds instead of hours.

Snapshot backups are done when you run the Backup task with the -s option and the Snapshot tab of a backup Configuration document that the server uses has a valid Snapshot configuration. While the configuration of snapshot backups can be more complex than a non-snapshot backup configuration, snapshots can provide a better backup experience and are an important standard for enterprise storage infrastructure.

Domino can support snapshot backups when all databases are in backup mode at the same time. But even though a snapshot might only take a couple of seconds for some solutions, changes in databases during the "snapshot window" can still occur and need to be backed up along with the snapshot.

Snapshot integration

Domino Backup allows snapshot integration issuing commands in the different stages required for a snapshot backup. The steps are highly dependent on the snapshot solution. The following describes a sample standard flow.

Bring all databases into backup mode.
Run a command or script to tell the snapshot to be executed.
Once the snapshot has been created, stop the backup mode on one database after another and collect change information from databases into "DELTA" files.
Ensure delta files are backed up for example to a specified folder or disk.
Run another command or script to back up those DELTA files along with the snapshot.

Restore operations

The integration scripts for a snapshot solution must provide a mechanism to find and restore NSF files and delta information. Typically restore operations include finding the right backup, mounting a snapshot as new drive or folder, and copying the files requested to be restored. Additional details might vary depending on the integrated snapshot infrastructure.