We are currently testing DAOS and I must say I am impressed. It just works. Great job !!!
I have 2 questions:
Is the maximum database size still 64GB?
In this case, once the attachments are in the DAOS repository, is this the logical size - as seen by Notes - or the physical size as seen by the OS?
Thanks
Mael
Subject: DAOS questions
We are currently testing DAOS and I must say I am impressed. It just works. Great job !!!Thanks! We think DAOS can be a great feature for a large set of our customers.
I have 2 questions:
Is the maximum database size still 64GB?
The 64GB limitation is a limit on the physical size of the NSF file itself. By pulling attachments out into separate storage using DAOS, you can have databases which are logically much larger than 64GB.
Two examples:
At IBM, we track all attachments submitted as part of any problem reports using a Notes database. This is essentially a large database that contains mostly attachments (sample databases, screen shots, nsd’s, etc). As we have been collecting this stuff for years, this database had reached the critical 64GB size threshold. Because this was such a great candidate for DAOS, we converted it to use DAOS. The physical NSF size went from 64GB, to 280MG, but of course the “logical size” is the same. Not only did we save disk space by consolidating redundant attachments, but we made the working size of the NSF much more managable.
Second example: On of our design partners put DAOS to the test be creating an NSF with a “logical size” of 2TB !
So, the actual physical nsf is still limited to 64GB, but if you have a lot of attachments you can certainly get around this.
Also, DAOS can be be backed up incrementally, which can be a huge savings for customers with these types of databases.
One caveat: If you allow a database to grow larger than 64GB you will no longer be able to make a local replica (of have a full cluster replica on a non-DAOS enabled database) because local replicas do not support DAOS.
In this case, once the attachments are in the DAOS repository, is this the logical size - as seen by Notes - or the physical size as seen by the OS?
The Notes client will report the “logical size”, as if all the attachments were stored in the database. The Domino Administrator can display the logical size, the physical size and the daos storage size. You can customize the “Files” tab display to show these new fields (see File/Admin Preferences)
Thanks
Mael
Subject: DAOS questions
Many thanks, Gary
This is what I wanted to hear.
Regards
Mael
Subject: DAOS questions - one more
“So, the actual physical nsf is still limited to 64GB, but if you have a lot of attachments you can certainly get around this.”
How would you suggest getting around this - other than splitting the database into smaller ones?
We have a couple of Knowledge Bases that have grown over the years and have a wealth of information, case stories, problem tracking & solutions, etc. and even using DAOS, at this rate, I’m afraid we’ll be hitting the limit in about one year.
Subject: Dealing with large databases
Customers deal with this issue in several ways. You can reduce the physical database size using compression and other techniques.
Moving attachments out to DAOS is one tool. Another that we would recommend would be to enable “document compression”. This is available in Domino 8.01 and later and this can dramatically reduce the size of your NSF.
You can do this by enabling the property
or from the server, you can enable the property and compress all existing documents using
load compact -c -v dbname.nsf
(or you can do DAOS and compression in one fell swoop using "load compact -v -daos on -c dbname.nsf )
Depending on your database, this could save you a significant amount of space. We have had some early adopters reduce their NSF sizes by over 50% using daos and document compression together.
If your database still gets too large, customers typically split the database into multiple pieces, but this does complicate things.
Subject: Thanks
Thanks again, Gary.
Much appreciated
Regards
Mael