When an IDXBUILD does not complete, it must be re-run to completion before any database access is allowed. Ensuring an IDXBUILD operation does not fail because it does not have enough disk space for creating sort files is paramount.
To be on the safe side allocating required sort space:
A) Use the values from past IDXBUILDS. Since 10.2B06 this information is saved to the database lg file:
(11480) Temporary sort file at <sort directory> used up <n>K of disk space.
(11483) A total of <n>K of temporary sort disk space was used for area <area number>.
B) If sort space from past IDXBUILD operations is not available, reserve the approximate size of your current database for the sort space. Otherwise, the following analysis provides estimate values:
i) As a rule of thumb, dependent on the efficiency of indexing, the size of the multi-volume .srt file should be calculated as: 75% of database size unless word indexes are included in the rebuild.
ii) Run an Index Analysis Report: "
proutil <dbname> -C idxanalys > idxana.out"
The idxanalys report will show the
Total number of blocks in the database being used for indexes, which needs to be
multiplied by 2.5 (for sorting) then
multiplied by the database block size (then round up)
Consider that the value given by idxanalys may not be high enough due to compression. Word indexes in particular, will usually compact a lot within the database, therefore its sort space will be proportionally much higher than a unique integer key field that will hardly compact at all.
iiI) A more specific calculation for .srt size is:
Size of one index entry * the number of records in the table * 3
- The number of records in each table can be found in a tabanalys report
- The size of each index entry can be approximated in an idxanalys report
