Intranet Journal: Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5 On the Way

December 26 2008

As the countdown continues, John Roling profiles the Notes/Domino 8.5 release in Intranet Journal:

The Domino server is really what gets the bulk of the improvements in the 8.5 release. One that may have some of the biggest impact is DAOS or Domino Attachment Object Storage.

Simply put, DAOS is a way for your Domino server to store attachments to your file system instead of inside a Notes database itself. When DAOS is enabled, attachments are removed from the database and placed in a folder on the server. The server creates internal pointers so a user still sees the attachment but doesn't realize it's not really in the database. ...

If you extrapolate this over your entire user base, the space savings on your server could be huge. And it doesn't stop there, you can enable document compression on the server, and IBM says you can see up to 30% disk space savings as well. So it seems with these two features alone, you'll get immediate return on your upgrade investment.
I don't want to over-sell DAOS and sell-short on all the other great features, but this is one immediate way to get instant payback for the upgrade.  Then you get the benefit of hundreds of other new features, like the Configuration Tuner, ID file management improvements, and many, many others.

Link: Intranet Journal: Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5 On the Way >

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8.5  Add/View Comments [18]

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  1. 1  Ben Langhinrichs http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog | 12/26/2008 5:22:21 PM

    It might be worth explaining a bit more how taking an attachment from your database on your server and saving it to your filesystem on that same server could lead to huge "space savings". I know some of the answer, but can't really address it due to NDA, but it seems like it would be the obvious question (and I might as well ask before Volker does).

  1. 2  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/26/2008 5:25:15 PM

    Ben, we've published an extensive article on how it works at { Link }

  1. 3  Eric Mack http://www.NotesOnProductivity.com | 12/26/2008 5:50:54 PM

    Ed, one of the things I have always liked (and bragged to clients) about Domino is that I could easly restore a Domino server simply from the files on my laptop. (The truth is, the only times I have ver had to restore a Domino server is once due to a disk crash and twice due to self-inflicted wounds goofing off with Windows Server). Still, nice to know I can do it quickly. What I HAVE done many times is move a Domino server (e.g. into the cloud or hosted party) by moving key databases. How will this DAOS affect this? I assume that for off-line Notes users, they will still see all attachments indie their local NSF with no need to connect to the server?

  1. 4  Pierre  | 12/26/2008 7:39:53 PM

    Countdown to when exactly ? (the release delay has spoiled my holidays...)

  1. 5  Steven  | 12/26/2008 8:02:00 PM

    @3 To use the old Notes addage, "it depends". How are you planning to "move the key databases"? If you do it by using a Notes client connected to a Domino 8.5 server, and assuming the NSFs you plan to "move" are enabled for DAOS (not all NSFs have to be OR should be), then you'll be fine. Same as when creating a local replica. Keep in mind that DAOS is running on the server, not your client, so your locally replicated (or new databse copies) will have all the attachments stored within the local NSF. However, if you try to move/copy DAOS-enabled NSF files from the underlying OS without the corresponding attachment store(s) or are not able to restore the attachment store files from a tape backup, you may be in for some a bit of fun. This does bring up one of the key considerations with DAOS. You will have to rethink the way some of your Domino server maintenance operations are performed, especially on those files that are DAOS enalbed. If the NFSs are not DAOS enabled, your operations will be the same as they were in the past.

  1. 6  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 12/26/2008 8:12:34 PM

    I think DAOS is going to be a winner, but with a caveat. I had used Commonstore to do exactly what DAOS does - namely move attachments out of the mail file and onto separate storage. We averaged 40-60% space savings on mail files. On a TB Domino server the space savings made a big difference. The caveat is that you can't just look at mail file size and think everything is OK. What I have seen with moving attachments out of the mail file is a 40-50 GB mail file reduced to 20-25 GB, but the number of documents in the Inbox was still out of control.

    So while DAOS can give you huge space savings, you still need to keep common sense practices in mind. Users still need to do their daily house keeping.

    Now for the advantages of using DAOS (besides space savings). First, it comes free with Domino. No need to invest in Commonstore. Granted, Commonstore has more advanced capabilities, but for the price, you can't beat DAOS. The second, and really neat advantage to DAOS is it's transparent to the user. With Commonstore, the attachment was replaced with a link to the attachment, in DAOS it looks just like the attachment is there.

    DAOS is going to be a big winner for IBM.

  1. 7  Bruce Elgort http://elguji.com/Ideajamtour | 12/26/2008 9:18:02 PM

    John Roling is to be commended for the excellent work he has done writing articles for Intranet Jounral. The articles are top shelf and help push the Notes and Domino gospel to people outside the yellow bubble.

  1. 8  Alan Bell http://www.dominux.co.uk | 12/27/2008 11:00:28 AM

    @Bruce, not sure if you were aware, but "top shelf" in the UK means where the, ahem, "gentleman's publications" are kept :-)

  1. 9  Bruce Elgort http://elguji.com/Ideajamtour | 12/27/2008 12:42:50 PM

    "The highest quality spirits in the house." - that's my definition :-)

  1. 10  Colin Williams  | 12/28/2008 2:06:13 PM

    Its a real bummer that 8.5 didn't make it out before Xmas. I'm sitting here at work, all alone, phones are dead (as expected) so I had planned three quiet days to dabble with XPages *sigh*

  1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/28/2008 4:47:36 PM

    @10 is there something about the current public beta that precludes you from dabbling?

  1. 12  Colin Williams  | 12/28/2008 7:27:02 PM

    I just don't like putting beta software on a production server ;) Ok, you got me...I'll dabble with the beta.

  1. 13  Steven  | 12/29/2008 9:55:51 AM

    So Ed, among all those "other great features" will we get that still missing(?) great cc:Mail feature where the Inbox and user created folders show both the read and unread message count? ;-)

  1. 14  Dale Cybela  | 12/29/2008 4:34:09 PM

    I am excited about 8.5. Actually I will be more excited about code stream after 8.5. Specifically, Directory Independance (aka. the ability to use Active Directory) so I can get the MS people onboard with using Lotus Notes. The only other good news I keep waiting for is a Administrator Client UI/Function refresh - it could use one.

    Dale

  1. 15  Monia P.  | 12/30/2008 5:14:35 PM

    I am also excited about Domino/Notes 8.5, Mac support in particular.

    A way to make Domino use AD to store users would be of interest to many I think.

  1. 16  Peter Z http://www.compaid.com | 1/5/2009 11:20:40 AM

    Like everyone else, anxiously waiting to provide DAOS and reduce mailfile size and remove another reason to move to Exchange.

    Will we be able to place the attachments in a folder on the SAN and allow the actual server to remain less encumbered?

    Will the attachments automatically remain on the local copy of the mailfile for remote/island use situations?

    Thanks

  1. 17  David Grossi http://www.exauce.com | 5/6/2009 9:12:09 AM

    What happens if a database heavier than 100Gb on the server (documents + external attachments handled by DAOS) then replicated locally on a Notes Client ?

    How the 64Gb limitation will be managed ?

    (this could happen in the case of a big document management application)