Six common factors that make Email management necessary in Lotus Notes

I am writing this article keeping in mind that you are familiar with Lotus Notes application and Domino server. The maximum defined for Lotus Notes database is 64 GB but it may be smaller than 64 GB depending on the type of file system used. There are several factors that make it necessary to manage the database size. In this article, I am going to some factors that adversely affect Lotus Notes performance.

Most common factors that affect Lotus Notes performance:

1.Lotus Notes Mail size:

Increased Lotus Notes mail size will lead to increased CPU usage. More will be the size of mail files more will be the memory required. 

Increased mail size also degrades the performance of:

• Backup and restore 
• View indexing, 
• Compact and transaction logging etc. 

2.Number of documents in the Inbox:

Large number of documents in the Inbox leads to:

• Increased response time by CPU.
• Increased number of resources (CPU, memory) required by the server.
• Increased disk I/O activity.
• Increased time to start or failover a server.

3.Fixed and mixed mail files sizes:

If the Lotus Notes mail box is containing a mix of files with different size ranges (26 MB to 2000 MB) with an average size of 700 MB then, there is not a noticeable affect on steady state but the ramp-up period increases over time. Thus, the capacity of Lotus Notes and Domino utilization is degraded.

Ramp up period refers to the time period between product development up to maximum capacity utilization of product by making continuous improvements and changes.

4.Full-text index and search:

If a database is not indexed and searched regularly then, it will consume a lot of CPU resources each time it is searched, so it is advisable to maintain a full-text index for the database.

5.The size and number of Documents in mail file:

Increased size and number of Documents in mail file consumes more CPU resources thus, it degrades Lotus Notes performance.

6.Count of Domino partitions:

More will the count of domino partitions more will be the memory required .CPU usage increases as the number of domino partitions increases. So, it better to have a single Domino partition that supports higher numbers of users than having a large number of domino partitions.

These are the most common factors that must be kept in mind if you are a Lotus Notes user or Domino administrators. Regular Email management is necessary to keep the Lotus Notes and Domino server application function properly. If you are looking for the most common Email management practices for Lotus Notes, then keep reading my upcoming posts .Stay in touch.