Using Indexes To Improve Database Performance; Overview Of Directory Index Types - Netscape DIRECTORY SERVER 7.0 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Using Indexes to Improve Database Performance

Using Indexes to Improve Database
Performance
Depending upon the size of your databases, searches performed by client
applications can take a lot of time and resources. In order to improve search
performance, you can use indexes.
Indexes are files stored in your directory databases. Separate index files are
maintained for each database in your directory. Each file is named according to
the attribute it indexes. The index file for a particular attribute can contain
multiple types of indexes, allowing you to maintain several types of index for
each attribute. For example, a file called
common name attribute.
Depending upon the types of applications using your directory, you will use
different types of index. Different applications may frequently search for a
particular attribute, or may search your directory in a different language, or may
require data in a particular format.
This section contains the following topics:
•

Overview of Directory Index Types

• Evaluating the Costs of Indexing
Overview of Directory Index Types
The directory supports the following types of index:
• Presence index — The presence index lists entries that possess a particular
attribute, such as
• Equality index — The equality index lists entries that contain a specific
attribute value, such as
• Approximate index — The approximate index allows approximate (or
"sounds-like") searches. For example, an entry contains the attribute value of
cn=Babs L. Jensen
searches against
Approximate indexes work only for English names written in ASCII
characters.
104 Netscape Directory Server Deployment Guide • October 2004
cn.db3
.
uid
cn=Babs Jensen
. An approximate search would return this value for
,
cn~=Babs Jensen cn~=Babs
contains all of the indexes for the
.
, and
cn~=Jensen
.