Environment
all versions of eDirectory
Situation
1. Identify the searches that are slow
Sometimes, it's obvious which ones are slow. During the
testing phase, you might immediately discover that a particular
ldap search takes a long time to complete.
If it's not obvious, you'll need to get an LDAP trace and
analyze it to determine the slow searches. See
How do I trace LDAP activity to a screen or log file? for the
procedure to get the trace. There's a Cool
Solution that can be used to do the analysis. (TBD - See
the notes for an example.)
A rule of thumb is that any search taking more than three
seconds falls into this category. In some cases, there might
not be anything that can be done to speed it up. For example,
a monthly report that exports one hundred thousand entries will
always take a long time.
2. Follow these general tips to improve search
performance
- Always ensure that the server being tested has a copy of every partition in the tree. Retest after adding all of them.
- If this is not possible, see the section about indexing that covers this scenario.
- If possible, use one level searches instead of subtree ones. They are usually faster.
- Whenever doing a subtree search, avoid using a presence filter, e.g. "cn=*".
- If you have a thousand or more alias objects, avoid alias dereferencing in the search.
3. If search performance is still slow, determine if indexes
need to be added.
- Proper indexing has the biggest impact on performance.
- See Creating, Deleting and Recreating eDirectory Indexes for the procedure to create them.
- Once you've identified the slow searches, examine the search filter and determine if an index needs to be added.
- Here are two examples:
- A subtree search with this filter, "title=CEO", takes ten seconds.
- A value index on title should be added.
- A subtree search with this filter, "sn=*smith*", takes fifteen seconds.
- A substring index on surname should be added.
- Special steps when a "slow" server doesn't hold every replica.
- If an index is added to this "slow" server, it will have to be added to a number of additonal ones, as well.
- Identify each partition which the server doesn't hold.
- Make sure that every other server in those partitions has the same new index as the "slow" one.
- Example:
- Server A doesn't hold the root partition. Servers B, C and D do.
- You've added a value index to A to improve performance.
- You must add the same value index to B, C and D.
- Note: you must add these indexes even if the search doesn't start at the top of the tree.