Chapter 10.

Managing Indexes

Indexing makes searching for and retrieving information easier by classifying and organizing attributes or values. This chapter describes the searching algorithm itself, placing indexing mechanisms in context, and then describes how to create, delete, and manage indexes.

1. About Indexes

This section provides an overview of indexing in Directory Server. It contains the following topics:

Section 1.1, “About Index Types”

Section 1.2, “About Default, System, and Standard Indexes”

Section 1.3, “Overview of the Searching Algorithm”

Section 1.5, “Balancing the Benefits of Indexing”

1.1. About Index Types

Indexes are stored in files in the directory's databases. The names of the files are based on the indexed attribute, not the type of index contained in the file. Each index file may contain multiple types of indexes if multiple indexes are maintained for the specific attribute. For example, all indexes maintained for the common name attribute are contained in the cn.db4 file.

Directory Server supports the following types of index:

Presence index (pres) contains a list of the entries that contain a particular attribute, which is very useful for searched. For example, it makes it easy to examine any entries that contain access control information. Generating an aci.db4 file that includes a presence index efficiently performs the search for ACI=* to generate the access control list for the server.

The presence index is not used for base object searches.

Equality index (eq) improves searches for entries containing a specific attribute value. For example, an equality index on the cn attribute allows a user to perform the search for cn=Babs Jensen far more efficiently.

Approximate index (approx) is used for efficient approximate or sounds-likesearches. For example, an entry may include the attribute value cn=Robert E Lee. An approximate search would return this value for searches against cn~=Robert Lee, cn~=Robert, or cn~=Lee. Similarly, a search against l~=San Fransisco (note the misspelling) would return entries including l=San Francisco.

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HP UX Red Hat Direry Server Software manual About Indexes, About Index Types