RE: [ActiveDir] Indexing an attribute

[Dean Wells]

First and foremost, I assume the attribute in question isn't linked ... there, I've asked the obvious.  Assuming it is not; that's an interesting question.  I can't say that I've thought about this before.  AD would be performing minor trickery if indexing were to help since attributes using DN syntax are maintained internally using the DNT ... not that the trickery required is hard to do but I don't know if it would since I haven't tried.   In all honesty, I don't hold out much hope but I also don't have a large enough DIT to hand at the moment to test against.  One idea did jump out at met though  ... perhaps you'd like to try a few iterations of the query below -   (&(objectcategory=person)(homeMDB=<GUID=04F46C422FC4AA4190D2B2096CD6946D>))   ... obviously, replace the GUID I've used above with the GUID of the DN you are querying upon.   I'd like to see the results using the "search stats" control (1.2.840.113556.1.4.970) for accuracy (you could use Joe's ADFIND tool if you like but let's not ... it'll almost certainly irritate him :-)   The iterations of the above query would be something along the lines of -   1. Query with search stats using the DN     - record results 2. Query with search stats using the GUID (syntax above)     - record, compare and post the results back here :)   ... (now for the part that'll require courage or no courage at all and a suitable lab environment)   3. Index the attribute     - wait for the index to complete construction         - you can determine completion by checking the DS event log for something along the lines of:           "An index on the attribute <index ID> <index name> was created"   4. repeats steps 1 & 2     - record, compare and post the results back here   Deano -- Dean Wells MSEtechnology * Email: dwells@msetechnology.com http://msetechnology.com   From: Holland Matthew BC GB [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 10:55 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: 'Eric Fleischman'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Indexing an attribute   The gain we are seeking is to speed up the LDAP query.   The background:  We have a scheduled process that populates groups with members based upon matching results from LDAP queries for department, location and country-name (c)   Example: Search filter for country ‘mycountry’ is (&(objectCategory=user)(c=mycountry))) Results from query populate a group called mycountry-allusers   Although location was indexed, c and department so the process was unacceptably slow as we use the domain root as a SearchBase, hence we decided to index these two attributes – which solved the problem!   Now we have a new requirement to populate groups with members based upon the Mail Storage Group /Server hence we want to query the HomeMDB attribute.  Or course, this is again slow due to the attribute not being indexed.   This raised a small concern of indexing a DN attribute and what the impact of this would be.  It would be great to get your thoughts, let me know (after your next shower maybe ;-)).   Thanks for your help!   Matty From: joe [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 09 November 2004 15:22 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: 'Eric Fleischman'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Indexing an attribute   You know though as I took a shower and thought about this[1]. This is a DN attribute, I am wondering if indexing may not help a lot or at all; not that I implied it would be any great help below. I look forward to reading a response from the likes of Dean or ~Eric and what they have to say.     joe     [1] Yes sick I know. I would read books in the shower too if I could figure out a way to keep the pages dry. Showers are a huge waste of time, right behind commuting if you drive yourself though I refuse to take short showers both for the benefit of those around me and because I feel hot showers are the culmination of great western civilization.     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joe Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 6:03 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Indexing an attribute You will have a little DIT growth, creation of new mailboxes might be impacted a little in terms of speed as insertion of the attribute might be a trifle slower (nothing you would notice I expect unless doing a ton of new creations quickly with MT C code and still you could blame it on the RUS faster than blaming it on the indexing).   Anything that searched on that attribute would possibly be more efficient or be quicker.   You still won't be able to do wildcard searches because it is a DN attribute.   What are you looking to get out of it? Or to put it another way, why do you think you should do it?   Overall in the end, MS and pretty much anyone is going to say you need to test it in your test lab with a comparable test data set as production to really know specifically what it will do.     joe      From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Holland Matthew BC GB Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 4:36 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ActiveDir] Indexing an attribute Hi all,   Does anyone know the potential impact of indexing an attribute in Active Directory?  The attribute is HomeMDB, it’s Single Valued and is a member of the PAS (We have approx 17,000 Mail Enabled User objects in Active Directory).   Cheers,   Matty