Evaluating The Costs Of Indexing - Netscape DIRECTORY SERVER 6.0 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Using Indexes to Improve Database Performance
• International index—The international index speeds searches for information
in international directories. You configure the index to apply a matching rule
by associating a locale (OID) with the attribute being indexed.
• Browsing Index—The browsing, or virtual list view, index speeds up the
display of entries in the Directory Server Console. You can create a browsing
index on any branch in your directory tree to improve the display
performance.

Evaluating the Costs of Indexing

Indexes improve search performance in your directory databases, but at the
following costs:
• Indexes increase the time it takes to modify entries.
The more indexes you maintain, the longer it takes the directory to update the
database.
• Index files use disk space.
The more attributes you index, the more files you create. And, if you create
approximate and substring indexes for attributes that contain long strings,
these files can grow rapidly.
• Index files use memory.
To run more efficiently, the directory places as many index files in memory as
possible. Index files use memory out of the pool available depending upon the
database cache size. A large number of index files requires a larger database
cache.
• Index files take time to create.
Although index files will save time during searches, maintaining unnecessary
indexes can waste time. Be certain to maintain only the files needed by the
client applications using your directory.
94 Netscape Directory Server Deployment Guide • December 2001