The Domain Catalog

The Domain Catalog, a database that uses the CATALOG.NTF template, controls which databases and file systems get indexed for Domain Search. Even if your organization is not implementing Domain Search, the Domain Catalog is a useful administrative tool for such tasks as keeping track of the location of database replicas.

You create the Domain Catalog by enabling the Catalog task on the server that will index the Domino® domain.

The portions of the Domain Catalog of interest to the Domain Search administrator are those that indicate which databases and file systems the indexing server will include in the Domain Index, as well as the forms used to search the index. Database designers and managers select a database for indexing by enabling the database property Include in multi database indexing. (Administrators can configure this setting for multiple databases using the Domino Administrator.) These settings are saved to the Domain Catalog when the Catalog tasks runs. Administrators can also control which databases are included in the Domain Index by customizing the selection formula for a hidden view ($MultiDbIndex) in the Domain Catalog.

Administrators specify which file systems to index by adding a File System document to the Domain Catalog for each file system on a server.

Because the Catalog task creates the Domain Catalog by using pull replication of the database catalogs on individual servers, updating the Domain Catalog is usually not a lengthy process if you have already created a database catalog on every server. What can be time consuming, however, is rebuilding the views in the Domain Catalog after an update by updating the database index.

Domain Catalog views

The Domain Catalog's views provide information about the databases, servers, and users in the Domino domain.

Table 1. Domain Catalog views

View

Displays

Access control lists

ACL information by Database, Level, and Name. Use this view to see who has what level of access to the different databases in the domain.

Content

Documents in the domain by Author, Category, and Date (if your organization has implemented document content categories).

Databases

Databases in the domain by Category, Hierarchy, Replica ID, Server, and Title.

Domain Indexer Status

Last-time indexed for databases included in the Domain Index, by both Server and Indexing Server.

File Systems

File systems and servers included in the Domain Catalog.

Hidden views

You can display hidden views in the Domain Catalog by holding down CTRL-SHIFT as you open the Catalog. Server tasks use hidden views to access information quickly. The hidden views $MultiDbIndex and $FileSystem are the work queues for the Domain Indexer task. These views show which databases and file systems will be spidered to create the Domain Index. The $MultiDbIndex view is sorted by replica ID, number of documents in the replica, and server to ensure that the most recent replica (the one containing the greatest number of documents) is the one included in the Domain Index.