Work related ramblings

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Happy and Safe Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!

Thanks everyone for your support during the year. We wish you and your loved ones a Happy and Safe Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!

Stay Safe

Illustration by Richard Galbraith

https://richardgalbraith.com.au/Index.html

Saturday, December 11, 2021

How to Master DAOS

Domino Optimizer Features in Detail - Part 4

If you have a DAOS enabled server, occasionally mail files or other attachment rich databases like Document Libraries can slip through the cracks and miss being enabled for DAOS participation. DO.NSF can be configured to automatically DAOS enable those databases and move the attachments into DAOS, it will also automatically pick up any new databases created in the future without the administrator having to think about it, or chase it up later. DO.NSF makes this easier, automating and improving Domino performance, I/O and backups.

Tick the box to “DAOS enable all databases using the following templates” and enter the template name, you can enter multiple template names, mail templates, etc. If there are databases based on this template type that you don’t want DAOS’d enter the name(s) in the “Never DAOSify the following databases” field.

When the automatic maintenance schedule runs, DO.NSF will enable DAOS participation in the targeted databases and the attachments will be moved out of the databases and into the DAOS store as part of the automated maintenance.

Before:

After:

LZ1 Compression and Data Compression have also been enabled for the databases.

The databases have also been automatically compacted and (optionally) defragged as part of the workflow.

If you enable the “Automatically monitor DAOS synchronization” box DO.NSF will automatically monitor the synchronization state of the DAOS catalog and as needed a DAOS resync operation can be automatically performed to re-count all the references to NLO files. If required DO.NSF, will initiate a resyc of the DAOS catalog at 12:15AM. If a resync is not required the operation detects that there is no work to do, and will exit immediately.

Click here for more information on The Domino Optimiser

Friday, December 10, 2021

The Domino Optimizer Features in Detail - Part 3

In this series of blog posts we will look at the features of Domino Optimizer in more detail.

Let's take a look at the Scheduling and it's benefits:

The Schedule section provides a simple UI for scheduling optimizer maintenance. This simple interface, eliminates the requirement to use program documents to configure and run multiple maintenance steps in a logical sequence.

Entering a % value in the “Only Compact when Freespace exceeds” column controls which databases DBMT will process during it’s compacting stage. To qualify for DBMTcompacting, the freespace within a database must exceed the value entered here. This avoids potentially processing hundreds of large databases where little, or no, freespace can be recovered. This dramatically improves the “out of the box” DBMT processing behaviour and workload, prevents fragmenting those databases and prevents unnecessary DBIID changes, thereby reducing backup requirements. Databases where freespace exceeds this amount are processed by DBMT in the usual manner.

An Effective Strategy for Optimized Performance

Entering a value in the Only Compact if not compacted in N Days column controls whether each database will be compacted based on how many days since it was last compacted. For example, in the previous screenshot, optimization is scheduled for 2.30am each day and DBMT will be allowed to run for up to 120 minutes. For the days Mon through Sat any database that has not been compacted in the last 5 days and also has more than 10% freespace will be compacted. On the Sunday maintenance (set for 0% freespace) any database that did not get compacted in the last 7 days, due to not satisfying the 10% freespace requirement on those days will be now picked up and compacted (except system databases and others manually configured for exclusion). This type of schedule strategy ensures that those databases where excess freespace was not recoverable would not be unnecessarily compacted during the maintenance cycle but would be compacted once per week on Sunday.

This eliminates the need for using any Program Documents for Compact maintenance.

Then Backup with options – Enabling this option allows DO.NSF to automatically call Domino 12's new backup feature once it's completed database optimization. DO.NSF will automatically run DBMT then defrag the databases (optional) then initiate the Domino backup process. Several immediate benefits of this include:

- Reduced Domino backup times

- Significantly less I/O

- Eliminates the need to schedule Domino backup with clumsy program documents.

Domino Backup Timeout (in minutes)

By default backup of a database times out after 15 minutes. If you have a slow backup architecture or large databases, consider increasing the limit. Increasing the limit to 60 is recommended by HCL.

Click here for more information on The Domino Optimiser

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Domino Optimizer Features in Detail - Part 2

In this series of blog posts we will look at the features of Domino optimizer in more detail (click here for part one).

Domino System Database Maintenance

It is not unusual for Domino servers to host System databases that never seem to get compacted/maintained (you know the ones.... log.nsf, etc) this is usually because it's just a hassle, inconvenient and time-consuming to shut down and manually do it. As a result, these databases are missing out on some much needed maintenance. This neglect means they are often much larger than they need to be, often respond sluggishly when opened, have many GB of wasted disk space trapped inside and take longer to backup. It all adds up, costing time and money. Server performance suffers when maintenance of these critical databases is neglected. With DO.NSF you can easily apply best practice maintenance, getting these back to a manageable size and also give Domino a nice scheduled "Health Restart". DO.NSF makes this as simple as ticking a few boxes, set and forget. If this is scheduled once a week the difference it makes to Domino is quite amazing.

Databases to target for off-line processing

There is a default list of Domino System databases here and by clicking the Drop Down you can enter other databases, for example you may have other directories on the server you want added to the list. (eg, names2.nsf, names3.nsf added as an example below)

Click here for more information on The Domino Optimiser

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

The Domino Optimizer features in detail - Part 1

In this series of blog posts we will look at the features of Domino Optimizer in more detail.

View Selection Menu Items

Each menu item will take you to the corresponding view where the various functions and settings can be configured. There is also a handy Domino Console menu item, click this and you can choose which server you want to connect to and select “Live Console” to view that server’s console messages and send commands.

Let's check out the Health Reports feature:

Health Reports

Health Reports provide a detailed analysis of the overall optimization health of the server, this information is displayed as configuration advice based on HCL documented best practice for server performance. Also displayed are numerous key metrics such as the Number of files analysed, Number of fragments, Most fragments in a single nsf, Average number of fragments per nsf file and Worst Health Index score. In addition to these statistics there is also a “Comment” section advising of various areas where a deterioration of Domino performance can be expected as a result of the current status. A Freespace Report section displays the amount of freespace for each volume, the size of the largest available freespace chunk, the total number of freespace fragments and an overall health indicator per Volume based on the usable state (or otherwise!) of the freespace.

Click on the “Create Health Report” button to create a detailed report.

Double click on the report document to open it and see the details in each section:

Overall Health

Key Metrics

Configuration

The Configuration section of the report displays the status of various settings considered best practice and known to enhance performance if configured correctly. These settings are optional but WILL improve performance. If a recommended best practice setting is found to be missing or not optimized this is reported and an “Implement Setting” button appears so that the administrator can easily implement the recommended setting. (A server restart is required so the settings can take effect).

When a best practice settings is absent or not optimal the “Implement Setting” button will appear, along with a short explanation, as seen below. The “Implement Setting” button gives the administrator a convenient and time-saving option to configure the setting. (A server restart is required so the settings can take effect)

Freespace Report

The Freespace Report section (above) includes the following information:

Volume: Volume Letter.

Largest freespace fragment (MB): This is the largest single fragment of available contiguous freespace.

Total freespace fragments: The number of fragments the freespace is broken into.

Status: This indicates if the largest file on the drive will fit into the largest freespace fragment. (insufficient contiguous freespace). If large files are not being effectively defragmented due to insufficient contiguous freespace, this issue can be resolved by utilizing the scheduling options available in the “Freespace” menu item (in “Settings”). Use the schedule to run a freespace defragmentation during off-hours.

Click here for more information on The Domino Optimiser