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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.
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.
DAOSTune estimation tool
DAOSTune is an application for estimating object size to help Domino administrators decide which minimum size to use for DAOS.

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.
    - 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.
      - Marking a database for attachment consolidation
        Enable the setting Use Domino Attachment and Object Service on the Advanced tab of the database properties to reduce the total cost of ownership of maintaining any Notes® database by storing attached files in a separate data repository on the Domino® server. This setting reduces document overhead for all participating databases on a server by maintaining a single copy of any attachment that can then be used in multiple documents in any database on the server.
      - Specifying server settings for attachment consolidation
        Before setting up attachment consolidation on a Domino® server by enabling the Domino Attachment and Object Service, decide where to place files and how large files should be before consolidation. On each server that uses attachment consolidation, you specify the directory where you want to create the resulting repository of shared file attachments. If the number of DAOS (.NLO) files in the directory becomes too large for your operating system limit, Domino creates additional subdirectories as needed.
      - DAOSTune estimation tool
        DAOSTune is an application for estimating object size to help Domino administrators decide which minimum size to use for DAOS.
        DAOSTune command line arguments
        Here are the command line argument options for using DAOSTune to scan for attachments, display bucket tables, and control other tool features.
        Interpreting bucket table output
        This topic provides an example to help you understand DAOSTune's bucket table output.
        DAOSTune best practices
        Since every server has a unique distribution of object sizes, it's important for you, the administrator, to understand that distribution. This section discusses best practices of how to use DAOSTune to arrive at an informed decision for setting the DAOS minimum object size.
      - How attachment consolidation works
        The information in this topic describes what happens to an attachment during consolidation.
      - The Domino® Attachment and Object Service (DAOS)
        In the Domino® Server document, the value in the Store file attachments in DAOS field on the DAOS tab disables or enables the operation of the Domino Attachment and Object Service as soon as the Server document is saved.
      - DAOS tier 2 storage
        Starting in Domino 11, the Domino Attachment Object Service (DAOS) tier 2 storage feature enables you to use an S3-compatible storage service to store older attachment objects that haven't been accessed within a specified number of days. This feature allows you to reduce the amount of data stored on Domino® servers that use DAOS. It can also improve the performance of any incremental file backups that you do for DAOS.
      - About downgrading Domino servers that use DAOS
        This section provides information about downgrading HCL Domino® servers that use DAOS.
      - Managing the attachment storage repository
        On a Domino® server, as the Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) repository grows to accommodate a greater number of attachments, multiple subdirectories are automatically created on the DAOS base path to balance the data load. You can move or store the repository and its data.
      - How using attachment consolidation affects a user's mail file quota
        When calculating the size of a mail file to determine whether it conforms to configured mail quota or warning threshold limits, Domino® treats attachments stored using the Domino Attachment and Object Service as though each user owned the entirety of the attachment file. Thus, the full size of every message delivered to a mail file that uses DAOS counts against the mail file quota.
      - Object copy optimization for DAOS
        The Notes® client recognizes that DAOS is enabled on the Domino® server, and DAOS is able to improve connection speed by refraining from transmitting unnecessary copies of attachments between clients and DAOS-enabled servers.
      - Encrypting DAOS attachment files
        You can encrypt attachment files with a key that is shared by servers that participate in DAOS or with a private key that is used by a single server. You can also disable attachment file encryption, although doing so is not recommended.
      - Setting a time window for DAOS resynchronization
        The Domino® administrator can specify when Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) resynchronization should run on a server, so that peak production hours can be avoided.
      - DAOS backup and restore
      - Repairing missing DAOS objects
        With the tell DAOSmgr Repair command, Domino administrators can scan the DAOS catalog for objects that were marked as missing during DAOS resynchronization and attempt to repair them from the server's cluster mates.
      - Gathering DAOS data using DAOS resync snapshot
        The DAOSMgr task has a feature for gathering DAOS data into a database that LocalDomainAdmins can examine and search. When enabled, a snapshot will run once during a resync and create a database to store the information in a persistent format that can be later reviewed.
    - 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.

DAOSTune estimation tool

DAOSTune is an application for estimating object size to help Domino administrators decide which minimum size to use for DAOS.

It scans a specified set of databases on a server and collects information about objects that potentially could be stored in DAOS. After scanning, it organizes these objects into “buckets” where objects of similar sizes are placed into the same bucket. Then, it displays information about these buckets as a table from which the you can see estimates about space savings and reasonable DAOS minimum object size suggestions.

It is important to understand that the actual number of DAOS objects that would be created or the amount of potential disk savings depend on the distribution of object sizes in your specific databases and the number of databases which share the same attachment.

Because there is no single "right answer," this tool analyzes the attachments for a specific set of databases and calculates the reduction in .nsf database storage, the amount of DAOS storage, and the overall disk space savings for a range of DAOS minimum object thresholds.

Our general rule of thumb is to try to find the threshold that provides 80% of the theoretical savings with 20% of the theoretical maximum number of DAOS files -- the 80/20 rule.

In the bucket table output, there is a column that denotes the minimum object size of that bucket. The more buckets specified, the more suggestions that are given (see the -buckets option in DAOSTune command line arguments). As the administrator, you can set the server’s DAOS minimum object size according to one of the suggested sizes based on which row’s estimates you like. The buckets listed on higher rows contain larger objects than those in lower rows. The first bucket contains the largest objects, and each bucket thereafter contains all the objects of the buckets before it, plus its own objects. The final and lowest bucket contains all the objects scanned.

Running DAOSTune does not change the state of the server’s databases, objects, or DAOS. The tool is safe to use in any way that you want, as it consumes only CPU resources and time.