Symetrik Domino Consulting

The directory catalog is supposed to be used for mobile users so that they can address mail to users or groups remotely without having to have a replica copy of the huge NAB on their laptop. For some organizations, this is not a big deal, they can just create a local replica of the NAB if it’s small enough.

For other organizations the NAB is 1GB plus in size, and managing that on a local replica for all users, and even the possibility of security vulnerabilities can be a big issue.

Other environment use dc.nsf so that their users can search via first name instead of last name. (seriously, it happens).

Let me explain how it works:
Set it up on 1 server only. This is done in the server document, under the server tasks tab, under the directory catalog sub-tab.
In the dc.nsf, configure it so that aggregation only runs on that server. This is set by opening dc.nsf on the server you want it to run, select the configuration view, open the configuration document and supply the server name in the ” Restrict aggregation to this server:” field.
Once the dc.nsf is created, you can manually create replicas on the servers you want to exist with the admin client.

If the dc.nsf becomes corrupt or out-of-date for some reason, run these commands to manually update it on the server where the task runs.
To manually update the directory catalog, use these commands:

tell dircat quit
load dircat dc.nsf -r (rebuilds the dc.nsf then shuts down)
load dircat (required because the previous command shuts down the task when finished).