Teamstudio Voices :: Have you read your Database Catalog recently

Tags: Lotus Notes Developers Admins
Have you read your Database Catalog recently?

It really does make for a good read, and no spoiler alert because I am not going to reveal how it ends. I talk to a lot of companies these days that are trying to eliminate unneeded resources, and I mean disk space and servers, not people. But disk is cheap, so why should I care? Well, you know your storage array has some fault tolerance built into it which adds extra disk. And that cluster doubles the amount of disk you need. And you know all those things that run every night, like backup, or catalog? They have to look at those databases to see if they have changed. So unused databases are not really free. And as you plan to upgrade to 8.5.1, would you rather have to think about testing 20,000 databases or only 5,000 databases?

Have you read your Database Catalog recently

So, here are some tips for things to look for in your catalog, and I would take the time to create a domain catalog if you haven't already done that.

1. Last modified date. I am pretty sure that a database that has not been modified in 5 years is not being used. You say that database has your HR policies in them and they don't change that much. I guess you have other problems if your policies haven't been modified in 5 years. In any event, this date will give you ideas about some databases that can be deleted or put on a CD.
2. Folder structure. When I looked on our servers, I found folders labeled IVES, which was our old company name. I am sure you have some folders for some projects that have been done a long time ago. Looking through just the first or second level of your folders will give you more ideas of databases that can be removed.
3. Mail folder. Your mail files will continue to get activity because those spam-bots never sleep. But look at the owner of that mail file. How long ago did that employee leave the organization? Maybe it's time to put a mail rule in place to tell people that person doesn’t work here anymore. And I will mention that Teamstudio can help you identify whether it's a user accessing the mail file, or a server task, across all of your mail files - just write me for more information.
4. Don't need to test all replicas. Truly, once is enough. How many unique databases to you have? It's real easy to go through and identify the number of unique databases.
5. Don't need to test templates either. There are a lot of NTF's and databases claiming to be templates, but if they aren't inherited into an NSF, they aren't really being used and don't need to be tested.

Simply reading your database catalog can help you identify databases that you don't need, and don't need to test when you upgrade. I worked with one company and went from over 21,000 databases in their domain to close to 7,000 unique databases to test in very little time. And this list could have been reduced even further with a little more effort.

Comments

1 - I agree.

I'm helping on a Lotus Notes to *gulp* SharePoint migration and used the catalog as the basis for auditing what needed to move. People where amazed that we could lay our hands on such up to date information so quickly. Try doing that in SharePoint!

Ed

Posted by Ed Lee At 03:51:28 AM On 08/25/2009 | - Website - |

2 - Ed,

I love hearing these stories!

Scott

Posted by Scott Johnsen At 01:44:30 PM On 08/26/2009 | - Website - |

3 - Yes I use the catalog extensively in my day to day work

Posted by John Coolidge At 11:20:20 AM On 08/31/2009 | - Website - |

4 - I forgot to mention - find all databases with zero documents (not templates). I bet you can get rid of those too!

Posted by John Kingsley At 03:03:42 PM On 08/31/2009 | - Website - |