Moving view indexes out of databases

You can move view indexes out of Notes databases on a server into separate view index files (.NDX files).

Before you begin

To use this feature, databases must be at ODS version 51 or higher. For information about ODS and controlling ODS version, see Domino on-disk structure (ODS).

The configuration fields in the Server document described here were introduced in Domino 12.0.2. To use these fields, the Domino server being configured must be Domino 12.0.2 or higher and use a V12.0.2 or higher pubnames.ntf design.

About this task

This feature is useful for large databases and provides the following benefits:
  • A smaller database file size, to avoid reaching the database size limit.
  • Faster database backup and restore.
.NDX files have a limit of 1 TB. The real determination of how large the views can grow is based on application responsiveness or if any other limits are reached before the 1 TB .NDX file limit is reached.

Procedure

  1. Enable transactional logging in the Server document in the Domino directory.
  2. In the Server document, click the NIFNSF tab and complete the following fields:
    Note: Prior to Domino 12.0.2, you used notes.ini settings to configure this feature, as noted in the following table. A Domino 12.0.2 or later server honors these settings. If you switch to using the Server document fields to configure the feature, those fields take precedence going forward.
    FieldDescription
    Store view indexes in NIFNSF Select Enabled to enable separate view indexes.

    The corresponding notes.ini setting used prior to V12.0.2 was NIFNSFEnable=1.
    NIFNSF base path (Optional) Specify where to store the .NDX files. If not specified, the files are stored in the Domino data directory. Specify an explicit path or path relative to the data directory. If you specify a location on a different computer, map the location to the local computer.

    The corresponding notes.ini setting used prior to V12.0.2 was NIFBasePath=<path>.
    Enable NIFNSF when creating new databases (Optional) To enable separate view indexes for all databases created on the server in the future, select Yes. The default is No.

    The corresponding notes.ini setting used prior to V12.0.2 was CREATE_NIFNSF_DATABASES=1.

    NIFNSF configuration fields in the Server document
  3. Restart the server.

What to do next

Run the following server console command to show all databases, indicate whether they use separate view indexes (NIFNSF state ON), and if so the .NDX file size:
show dir -nifnsf
Run the following server console command to show only information about databases that use separate view indexes:
show dir -nifnsfonly
Run the following command to enable separate view indexes for a database. Restart the server after running the command:
load compact -c -nifnsf on <database>.nsf

To disable separate view indexes on an database that currently uses them, run the following compact command on the server:

load compact -c -nifnsf off <database>.nsf