How big are Lotus databases?
Category Notes and Domino
Bookmark :
SPACEWatch for Domino extends storage management into IBM Lotus Notes and Domino infrastructures. It lets you see detail down to individual file attachments on how Lotus databases are being used. If you want to analyze this detail in SPACEWatch, here's a short guide to interpreting the results you see.
What is a Notes database?
Notes databases are unique in design; they are document-centric and cannot be clearly classified as either relational or object in architecture. They exist as one or more replicas (typically only one per Domino server) and these replicas look like plain file-system files of type "nsf" (which stands for Notes Storage Facility).
Within each NSF file there are a range of objects as illustrated below:
A Notes database file contains a variety of data
A "blank" Lotus Notes 8 mail file, for example, is bigger than 20 MB! This is because it contains all the mail application objects, security controls etc. for the mail file to function as a Notes mail application. Once a user starts to use the database, most space is rapidly taken up by file attachments.
How does SPACEWatch for Domino display Notes databases?
SPACEWatch for Domino allows you to search and analyze Notes databases down to individual file attachments, whether the NSF file is located on a Domino server or locally (e.g. as an archive file). Optionally you can also include details of messages that users have created.
Logically a Notes database is like a folder – just like a folder it contains various types of files. And so this is how it is displayed in SPACEWatch. For example in the Directory Finder you will see a mail file appearing like this:
How a Notes database appears in SPACEWatch's Directory Finder
Note how:
· The folder name = the NSF database file path and name
· “Size” is the total space taken up by all file attachments and messages in this database
· “Size on disk” is the total storage the NSF file is consuming
· “Files” is the total number of file attachments in the database
· “Messages” is the total number of user-created documents (emails) in the database
· “Owner” is the Lotus Notes owner of the database
If you compare this to the view of the NSF file from Windows Explorer:
A Notes database in Windows Explorer
You can see a single nsf file with the same size as shown by SPACEWatch’s “Size on disk” value. In this example the Domino server is running in on Windows, but SPACEWatch shows the correct “Size on disk” for any server type supported by Domino.
By the way, this “Size on disk” is also the size you see displayed when you look at a Notes database’s properties in a Notes client:
The Notes client “Disk space” is the same as SPACEWatch’s “Size on disk”
If you divide the earlier 688,128 KB size by 1024 you get the 672 MB shown in the Notes client. Note how the “Documents” total is the same as the “messages” total reported by SPACEWatch.
Where else can you see Notes databases in SPACEWatch?
As well as the Directory Finder you will see Notes databases displayed in various parts of SPACEWatch for Domino. These include the Tree Summary; Quick Answers; and various Reports. In all these “Size” and “Size on disk” can be interpreted in just the same way as I describe above.
Bookmark :
SPACEWatch for Domino extends storage management into IBM Lotus Notes and Domino infrastructures. It lets you see detail down to individual file attachments on how Lotus databases are being used. If you want to analyze this detail in SPACEWatch, here's a short guide to interpreting the results you see.
What is a Notes database?
Notes databases are unique in design; they are document-centric and cannot be clearly classified as either relational or object in architecture. They exist as one or more replicas (typically only one per Domino server) and these replicas look like plain file-system files of type "nsf" (which stands for Notes Storage Facility).
Within each NSF file there are a range of objects as illustrated below:
A Notes database file contains a variety of data
A "blank" Lotus Notes 8 mail file, for example, is bigger than 20 MB! This is because it contains all the mail application objects, security controls etc. for the mail file to function as a Notes mail application. Once a user starts to use the database, most space is rapidly taken up by file attachments.
How does SPACEWatch for Domino display Notes databases?
SPACEWatch for Domino allows you to search and analyze Notes databases down to individual file attachments, whether the NSF file is located on a Domino server or locally (e.g. as an archive file). Optionally you can also include details of messages that users have created.
Logically a Notes database is like a folder – just like a folder it contains various types of files. And so this is how it is displayed in SPACEWatch. For example in the Directory Finder you will see a mail file appearing like this:
How a Notes database appears in SPACEWatch's Directory Finder
Note how:
· The folder name = the NSF database file path and name
· “Size” is the total space taken up by all file attachments and messages in this database
· “Size on disk” is the total storage the NSF file is consuming
· “Files” is the total number of file attachments in the database
· “Messages” is the total number of user-created documents (emails) in the database
· “Owner” is the Lotus Notes owner of the database
If you compare this to the view of the NSF file from Windows Explorer:
A Notes database in Windows Explorer
You can see a single nsf file with the same size as shown by SPACEWatch’s “Size on disk” value. In this example the Domino server is running in on Windows, but SPACEWatch shows the correct “Size on disk” for any server type supported by Domino.
By the way, this “Size on disk” is also the size you see displayed when you look at a Notes database’s properties in a Notes client:
The Notes client “Disk space” is the same as SPACEWatch’s “Size on disk”
If you divide the earlier 688,128 KB size by 1024 you get the 672 MB shown in the Notes client. Note how the “Documents” total is the same as the “messages” total reported by SPACEWatch.
Where else can you see Notes databases in SPACEWatch?
As well as the Directory Finder you will see Notes databases displayed in various parts of SPACEWatch for Domino. These include the Tree Summary; Quick Answers; and various Reports. In all these “Size” and “Size on disk” can be interpreted in just the same way as I describe above.
Comments
Posted by Terry Boykin At 11:24:04 AM On 12/17/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by dilan hotrey At 04:43:08 AM On 11/05/2009 | - Website - |