Size Really Does Matter
April 17 2007 10:45:00 PM
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In the tip Size Matters, I showed you how to find the size of a database (application). In the comments for that blog entry, it was pointed out that the"% used" for a database is important to know when creating a new database. Today I'll explain what that means.
Looking at the size of my mail file in the image below on the left, you can see that it is 393 MB. However, when I push the "% used" button, Notes tells me that the percentage of that 393 MB currently in use in only 82.6%. That means that when determining the disk space needed to make a new replica of the database, a closer approximation would be 0.826 X 393 MB, or 325 MB. The image on the right is of a new replica, showing that to indeed be the case. This difference of about 70 MB might not be much, but on a larger mail file it could make a big difference!
So why is a database not 100% in use? The simplest explanation is that when new documents are added, the size of the database increases. When you delete documents, the space those documents previously occupied is not always automatically used by the next document. On the server your Administrators take care of "cleaning this up" for you, but in a future tip I'll explain what you can do to reduce the size of local databases on your computer.
A second item to think about with respect to the size of a local database is how large the Full Text Index (FTI) might be. The FTI is what allows you to search for words or phrases in Notes database. Using the Database Properties Box again, this time clicking on the second to last tab on the right, you can see the size of the index is 27 MB. This is in addition to the number above.
By combining these two sizes, 328 MB + 27 MB, I can calculate that my mail file will require about 350 MB of space on my computer. Of course, it is always safer to round up, so in my case I'd make sure I had about 500 MB free before making a local replica, which is what I will explain in the next tip.
Advanced Reading. So what makes up the size of a database any way?
There are 3 main items which contribute to the size of a database: the design elements, the view indexes, and the documents themselves (plus the white space from deleted documents).
The size of the design elements can be approximated by the size of the database's template. For mail files this is normally between 20-25 MB.
The size of the views can be found using the Domino Administration client. (if you have it installed). Highlight the database in the Files Tab, and choose Database - Manage Views. Below you can see the view indexs for my mail file around 40MB.
So that means my mail file has approximately 328-25-40=263 MB of documents.
Looking at the size of my mail file in the image below on the left, you can see that it is 393 MB. However, when I push the "% used" button, Notes tells me that the percentage of that 393 MB currently in use in only 82.6%. That means that when determining the disk space needed to make a new replica of the database, a closer approximation would be 0.826 X 393 MB, or 325 MB. The image on the right is of a new replica, showing that to indeed be the case. This difference of about 70 MB might not be much, but on a larger mail file it could make a big difference!
So why is a database not 100% in use? The simplest explanation is that when new documents are added, the size of the database increases. When you delete documents, the space those documents previously occupied is not always automatically used by the next document. On the server your Administrators take care of "cleaning this up" for you, but in a future tip I'll explain what you can do to reduce the size of local databases on your computer.
A second item to think about with respect to the size of a local database is how large the Full Text Index (FTI) might be. The FTI is what allows you to search for words or phrases in Notes database. Using the Database Properties Box again, this time clicking on the second to last tab on the right, you can see the size of the index is 27 MB. This is in addition to the number above.
By combining these two sizes, 328 MB + 27 MB, I can calculate that my mail file will require about 350 MB of space on my computer. Of course, it is always safer to round up, so in my case I'd make sure I had about 500 MB free before making a local replica, which is what I will explain in the next tip.
Advanced Reading. So what makes up the size of a database any way?
There are 3 main items which contribute to the size of a database: the design elements, the view indexes, and the documents themselves (plus the white space from deleted documents).
The size of the design elements can be approximated by the size of the database's template. For mail files this is normally between 20-25 MB.
The size of the views can be found using the Domino Administration client. (if you have it installed). Highlight the database in the Files Tab, and choose Database - Manage Views. Below you can see the view indexs for my mail file around 40MB.
So that means my mail file has approximately 328-25-40=263 MB of documents.
