Building the Indexes

After designing the index installation, use the Omnidex utility, DBINSTAL, to install the indexes onto the environment catalog. This step must be performed prior to building the indexes.

• If this is a first time installation, you must perform this step manually, specifying the indexes that are to be installed on each column.
• If you are reinstalling the indexes on a preexisting installation, you can use a script file to perform this task. Use OAHELPER to automatically generate this script file from the existing installation.

If the installation has changed, you may want to do the installation manually and then generate a new script file for future updates, rather than trying to modify and existing script. Any errors in the script will cause the installation to fail.

To install the indexes manually, run DBINSTAL from a system prompt and follow the screen prompts:

> dbinstal

To use an installation script, run DBINSTAL from a system prompt and pass the installation script as a command line argument:

> dbinstal < install.in

Periodic Updates

It is a good idea to rebuild the indexes when online updates increase the size of the database by 20% or more. This process repacks the indexes and optimizes retrieval performance.

Build the Indexes Manually

To build the indexes manually, run DBINSTAL and enter the environment catalog filespec at the Database or Environment: prompt. Indexes must already be installed on this environment. Remember, installing the indexes and building the indexes are two separate processes.

Next , enter B for build at the Cmd: prompt, then enter a table name or index name at the Table [;key] prompt. This causes DBINSTAL to build the indexes for the specified table or index.

DBINSTAL will display a message detailing the process, including the number of rows in the table, the number of keys loaded into the indexes, and the total CPU and Elapsed time it took to complete the build.

Continue entering the B command and Table or Index name until all indexed tables and aggregation index names have been entered.

Child tables linked to a parent table in the index installation, belong to the parent domain and will be indexed at the same time the parent table is indexed. Therefore, it is not necessary to separately build the indexes for a child table.

Build the Indexes Using a Script File

To rebuild the indexes on an environment catalog, where the index installation did not change, it best to use a script file generated by OAHELPER. This will prevent mistakes and inconsistencies between builds.

Each line of this file is passed to DBINSTAL where each new line character is treated as a carriage return. Every entry must match the DBINSTAL prompts exactly or an error will occur. Therefore, be very careful when editing this file.

There are two ways to use a script file to build the indexes:

1. Run DBiNSTAL and pass the batch file as an argument.

> dbinstal < filespec

2. Make sure the batch file is a system executable batch file, filename.bat on Windows for instance, and include the command to run DBINSTAL as the first line of the file.

> installindexes.bat

The script file generated by OAHELPER also contains the script to install the indexes. The scripts can be moved into separate files since it is not always necessary to perform both actions at the same time.

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