Description:
Bad eDirectory indexing can immediately spike processing power up to 100%. If an administrator is particularly bad, a complete eDirectory lock up can result (an excellent way to make this happen is to try to index ACLs and then push out the index via iManager. Stupid? Yes. Has it happened? Yes. And it is quite easy ...).

eDirectory does not have a simple way to tell how much processing is taken up by indexing. Moreover, for a truly severe problem like indexing ACLs, a drastic fix like manually deleting the offending index via dbedit is required.

Proposed Solutions:
Two options:
1. An easy place in iMonitor to tell the relative cost of each index that is currently in the replica -- i.e. how much processor time is devoted to it.
2. An easy means via iManager or iMonitor or a command line switch to temporarily disable indexing. It would be nice if this could be accompanied by a switch that would delete selected indexes (or all user-installed indexes) upon an eDirectory restart (since if eDirectory is using all the process cycles, it is not possible to free it up enough to delete the index when eDirectory is running -- this is only for the most severe cases).

Value Proposition:
1. Administrator stupidity would be less damaging.*
2. It would be easier to tell if indexing is creating server utilization problems.

* I use the term "stupidity" because I have in fact been guilty of over-indexing, and am willing to take the adjective. See SR# 10680822071.

by: Johnnie O. | over a year ago | FTP