Overview | Types of Environments | Creating Environments | Maintaining Environments | Deploying Environments

• Sample Environment File
• Creating the Environment File
• Connecting to an Environment File
• Types of Environment Files
  • Grids
  • Multi-Database
  • External File Catalog
• Changing an Environment File
• Moving Environments

An Omnidex Environment is a term that describes all the aspects an Omnidex database. This includes:

• The Omnidex Environment File, an XML file containing the metadata about the database and the Omnidex indexes.
• The database, consisting of a relational database, a series of raw datafiles, a series of delimited files, or all three.
• The Omnidex indexes and support files for the database.

Typically, an Omnidex Environment is a directory with subdirectories that contain all of these elements. This is often the most convenient approach since whole directories are easy to move and back up. In many cases, however, the database and indexes are large enough that they must span multiple disk drives or even machines. In that case, the Omnidex Environment refers to the entire collection, even though it is disbursed.

An Omnidex Environment File is an XML file that contains all of the metadata about the database and the Omnidex indexes. It is created interactively using the Omnidex Administrator, or using SQL statements such as CREATE ENVIRONMENT, CREATE DATABASE, CREATE TABLE and CREATE INDEX. The metadata contained in an Omnidex Environment File includes:

• Connection information for one or more databases or data files.
• Schema layouts for tables and columns within the databases.
• Constraint definitions establishing parent-child relationships between tables.
• Omnidex indexing for the tables and columns within the databases.
• Configuration information about the entire environment.

Omnidex Environment Files also serve an important role in connections. An Omnidex Connection String points to an Omnidex Environment File. This means that the Omnidex Environment File is the starting point for nearly every Omnidex operation.

There are several types of Omnidex Environments, as described below.

The most common environment encompasses a single database with indexes. This can be either a relational database, such as Oracle, SQL Server or MySQL, or it can be a series of data files arranged as a database. Omnidex indexes are usually added to the database. Connections to this type of environment allow complete, indexed access to the database.

Omnidex Environments can be comprised of multiple databases. These databases can be of different types as well. For example, an environment can contain a database pointing to Oracle tables, and also contain a database pointing to raw data files or delimited files. All databases can have Omnidex indexes, and queries against this environment can reference tables from both databases. This capability is of great benefit to those who have transient log files or transaction files that they want to query in conjunction with a primary relational database.

Omnidex is frequently used on very large databases, often with billions of rows. These databases are appropriate for an Omnidex Grid. Omnidex Grids distribute the data and indexing across multiple nodes, allowing indexing and queries to be processed on each node in parallel, or even limited to individual nodes. A Omnidex Grid Environment contains the standard database and indexing information, but also contains the configuration of the Omnidex Grids.

Omnidex provide powerful features for performing textual searches, including searches on external textual files. An Omnidex database acts as a catalog of the textual documents and allows the indexing of both the catalog and the documents themselves.

Omnidex provides a special environment that gives access to features within the product itself, such as connection and query logs, synonym tables, error messages and configuration information. This reserved environment is simply called “omnidex”, and is universally available in the product.

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