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Tuning
Use this information to improve HCL Domino® server, Domino Web server, and messaging performance through the use of resource balancing and activity trends, Server.Load commands, advanced database properties, cluster statistics, and the Server Health Monitor.
Setting advanced database properties
Advanced database properties include performance optimization and compression features, as well as ways to manage usability features such as unread marks and soft deletions.
The database cache
To minimize delays that occur when users, servers, or API programs open and close databases on a server, each server maintains a database cache. When a database closes and there are no users or processes using the database, Domino® puts the database in the cache so it can close it quickly. The database remains in the cache until it's opened again or for about 15 to 20 minutes, whichever comes first. Databases in the cache can be opened quickly.
Managing the database cache
You can manage the database cache using server commands and NOTES.INI settings.

Tuning
Use this information to improve HCL Domino® server, Domino Web server, and messaging performance through the use of resource balancing and activity trends, Server.Load commands, advanced database properties, cluster statistics, and the Server Health Monitor.
- Using activity trends
  Domino® server resource utilization can be separated into two types, system activity and user activity. System activity, which includes the level of processor, disk, memory, and network consumption that Domino generates to keep the server running, is a fixed amount of activity, as long as systems are healthy and performing smoothly. Domino servers typically use a modest percentage of their resources to run. The remaining server capacity is used to support user activity, which varies with the usefulness of the data on the server.
- The Server.Load tool
  Server.Load is a capacity-planning tool that you use to run tests, also called "scripts" and "workloads," against a targeted Domino® server to measure server capacity and response metrics.
- Tuning Domain Indexer performance
  Each time the Domain Indexer task runs, it looks in the Domain Catalog for new databases that have the Include in multi database indexing property enabled. It then looks for documents and files in existing databases and file systems that are new or changed since the last time it ran, and adds them to the Domain Index.
- Improving Domino® server performance
  Read the following topics for help on improving basic Domino® server performance and capacity, as well as the performance of these features: Agent Manager, databases and the Domino directory, the directory catalog, LDAP searches, mail, Web server, and UNIX™ server.
- Improving Web server performance
  After you set up the Domino® Web server and make sure that it runs properly, check the server's performance and response time.
- Improving mail performance
  Domino® includes features that improve efficiency in specific environments, but these features may not be switched on by default.
- Setting advanced database properties
  Advanced database properties include performance optimization and compression features, as well as ways to manage usability features such as unread marks and soft deletions.
  - Setting database properties that optimize database performance
    You can set database properties to optimize database performance and to reduce database size. Set database performance properties by opening the Database Properties box on an existing database or as you create a database.
  - Enable soft deletions
    In some databases, deleting a document permanently removes it from the database. In other databases, such as the Notes® mail file database, deleting a document moves it into a Trash folder and stores it in a state of "soft deletion." From this folder, users can restore deleted documents by selecting Restore.
  - Using database design compression
    Use the advanced database property Compress database design to reduce the total cost of ownership of maintaining any Notes® database by reducing the size of all design elements in the database.
  - Using document body compression
    Use the advanced database property Compress document data to reduce the total cost of ownership of maintaining any Notes® database by compressing non-summary item data in all documents in a selected database. Document compression can provide up to a sixty percent size saving.
  - The database cache
    To minimize delays that occur when users, servers, or API programs open and close databases on a server, each server maintains a database cache. When a database closes and there are no users or processes using the database, Domino® puts the database in the cache so it can close it quickly. The database remains in the cache until it's opened again or for about 15 to 20 minutes, whichever comes first. Databases in the cache can be opened quickly.
    - Monitoring the database cache
      Monitor the effectiveness of the database cache by occasionally checking cache statistics.
    - Managing the database cache
      You can manage the database cache using server commands and NOTES.INI settings.
    - Controlling database size
      Databases whose size is monitored and minimized show increased performance: database operations require less I/O and fewer CPU resources; view rebuilding and updating is quicker; and memory and disk space allocation is improved.
  - Tools for monitoring database size
    This table summarizes the methods you can use to monitor database size and the information each method provides.
  - Monitoring database size
    You can monitor size and used space in a database.
  - Compacting databases
    When documents and attachments are deleted from a database, Domino® tries to reuse the unused space, rather than immediately reduce the file size. Sometimes Domino will not be able to reuse the space or, because of fragmentation, cannot reuse the space effectively until you compact the database.
  - Determining the file format of a database
    You can check the ODS (on-disk structure) and determine the file formats of databases before compacting them.
  - Compact options
    This topic describes options you can use with the Compact server task.
  - Database size quotas
    Set a database size quota to specify the maximum size a database can attain.
  - Deleting inactive documents
    Regularly delete inactive documents from databases to save disk space, to make it easier for users to find information, and to improve database performance.
  - Allowing more fields in a database
    You can increase the number of fields allowed in a database by selecting the advanced database property Allow more fields in database.
- Understanding cluster statistics
  Three categories of Domino® cluster statistics help you analyze clusters
- Improving the performance of the Server Health Monitor
  If the Domino® Administration client workstation performs at 100 percent CPU utilization for a long period of time, the Server Health Monitor discards server statistic data to keep up with the workload.

Managing the database cache

You can manage the database cache using server commands and NOTES.INI settings.

About this task

You can use the server commands Dbcache Show to display databases in the cache, Dbcache Flush to close databases so that they are not open in the cache, and DBcache Disable to disable the cache (temporarily). For more information, see the related topics on these commands.

You can also use NOTES.INI settings to change the number of databases the cache holds (for example, if after monitoring you determine you should increase the number), or to change the time a database entry remains in the cache (for example, to discard entries for inactive databases).

Note: Using a NOTES.INI setting to disable the database cache, as opposed to using the server command, is not recommended.