This chapter concerns replication and synchronizing replicas, eDirectory administration, and network time synchronization. The objectives important to this chapter are found on page 8-1:
Concepts:
Identify What iMonitor is and How to Use ItFor those with NetWare console experience, iMonitor can be thought of as an IP based MONITOR utility. You can run it from any workstation on your IP network, and may be able to run it from any computer with access to the Internet. iMonitor runs in a browser, but there are still specific requirements to use it:
Navigation frame - The buttons that appear on the left side of this frame remain fairly constant. The right side changes depending on the iManager feature currently selected. You can expect to find buttons for Help, Login/logout, Remote Manager, DSTRACE, and eDirectory Repair. Assistant frame - Links appear here that change the content of the Main frame. Click links to features related to Directory Service Agents, which the text defines as instances of eDirectory running on specific servers. Think of a DS Agent as a server running eDirectory. To run eDirectory, the server must run the DS.NLM program. Main content frame - As noted above, this frame presents the information requested with the controls in the other frames. It also presents links to drill down to more specific information, and interfaces to change the values of settings. iMonitor can be configured with settings in SYS:\SYSTEM\NDSIMON.INI. This plain text file has a series of settings in it, which are all remarked by default. Removing the remark marker at the beginning of a line would enable the setting on that line. (As with other NetWare configuration files, any line that begins with # as the first character is considered remarked, and is ignored by the operating system.) Use iMonitor to Diagnose and Repair eDirectory ProblemsiMonitor has several features for monitoring eDirectory. They can be broken into four categories. Of course, it wouldn't be a Novell book unless they broke the topics into subtopics:
Repair eDirectory Using iMonitoriMonitor has a Repair option in its Navigation frame, which enables an administrator to perform eDirectory repairs. In order to repair a partition replica, first select it, then select Repair. To repair a single eDirectory object, select that object, then click Repair. A helpful choice from previous versions is Run in Unattended Mode, which tells the utility to run without interaction from the operator, correcting what it can. The text refers to the eDirectory database as a DIB set. This refers to the set of files that eDirectory is stored in.
DIB set files can be archived on the server. When an archive is no longer needed, the archive can be deleted with the Delete Old DIB Set option. The text makes a special note that once performed, you cannot undo this deletion. The discussion of advanced options uses a term that is not defined until the next chapter: Obituary. Think of an Obituary as a placeholder for an object that has been moved or deleted from its place in the tree. The Obituary exists as update information for the other replicas of this partition that have not been synchronized yet. A feature that is offered, but not recommended, by Novell is Schedule Report. A better name would have been Schedule Repair, since that is what it really does. Novell suggests running repairs as needed, not at set intervals. This may be partly because the repair utility only repairs the replicas on the server where it runs, and this may cause problems until you run it on other servers holding replicas of the same partition. Maintain and Optimize eDirectory Using Cache OptionsPrevious versions of eDirectory used block cache, which are copies of physical blocks from the hard drive, stored in server RAM for quicker access. eDirectory 8.6 uses block cache and entry cache. Entry cache is a representation of the eDirectory structure, stored in server RAM, that enables the server to locate data in the block cache faster. Some data is offered about the services that each kind of cache will enhance:
If you allocated a specific amount of memory as block cache in an earlier version of eDirectory (default was 8 MB), then you should double the amount to allocate as cache memory in eDirectory 8.6. This amount of memory will be shared between block cache and entry cache. Previous versions of eDirectory stored information in block cache, but did not efficiently clean out old data when done using it. eDirectory 8.6 browses the blocks and cleans them. By default, this is done every 15 seconds. Novell recommends that you try for a 1:1 ratio between block cache size and eDirectory database size. This will give faster access to data. Two different ratios are recommended for entry cache size: either 1:2 or 1:4. Other ratios between entry cache and database sizes are not recommended. It is possible to allocate cache memory by one of two methods. Note that you must choose one, since the methods are mutually exclusive. The methods are Dynamically Adjusting Limit and Fixed Memory Limit. Whichever you use at any given time becomes the new default for that server. The description in the text of default memory cache allocation is hard to understand. What it means is this:
Dynamically Adjusting Limit - As the name states, this is a dynamic process, so the amount of memory available to cache can vary with the amount of memory available from the server at any given moment. The administrator sets the percentage of available memory to use for cache. As implied above, you also set the minimum and maximum cache size. The default minimum is 16 MB. The default maximum value is 4 GB. It is possible to set these values in conflict. In case of a conflict, the server uses the value for minimum. The time between dynamic recalculation and adjustment can be set by the administrator. By default, this interval is 15 seconds. Fixed Memory Limit - This method was used in earlier versions of eDirectory, and it continues to be an option. In fact you can set this to work three ways:
Changes to cache can be made through iMonitor. The text recommends running ConsoleOne, right-clicking a server object, and choosing Launch iMonitor. Sign in as an administrator, choose Agent Configuration on the Navigation frame, and find Settings. Under the Database Cache link, you will be able to change all the settings described above.
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