Start/notes.ini Parameters/View_Rebuild_Dir

View_Rebuild_Dir

Parameter: View_Rebuild_Dir
Short description: Path for temporary files during view rebuilds (updall -R, opening a view with a deleted index). Default: system temp folder. Recommended: separate drive with plenty of free space.

Profile

Parameter
View_Rebuild_Dir
Category
Performance / Memory (View indexing)
Available since
At least 9.0.1 (HCL doc 9.0.1 – 14.5.1)
GUI equivalent
none (notes.ini only)
Possible values
Absolute path to a directory with plenty of free space (e.g. D:\REBUILD or /local/rebuild)
Default
System temp folder (Windows: C:\TEMP, Linux: /tmp); if it doesn't exist, the Domino data folder is used

Description

According to the HCL product documentation (14.5.1, Changing the temporary folder used for view rebuilds):
When Domino® rebuilds views — for example, when you use updall -R or when a user opens a view whose index has been deleted — it may generate temporary files to sort the data in order to rapidly update the views; Domino® deletes these files after rebuilding the views. By default, these temporary files are located in your system's temporary folder — for example, C:\TEMP. If your system doesn't have a temporary folder, then Domino® puts the files in the Domino® data folder.
Depending on the amount of memory available during rebuilding, the space required in the temporary folder for each view being rebuilt is approximately two times the size of the largest view or two times the size of all the data in documents, whichever value is greater. It is recommended that you change the location of the temporary files to a different drive from the Domino® data folder.
View_Rebuild_Dir defines the directory in which Domino writes temporary sort files during a view rebuild. A view rebuild is triggered by:
  • load updall -R or load updall -R <db> (administrative full rebuild)
  • Opening a view whose index has been deleted or corrupted (client-driven)
  • compact -D with discard built views
  • First indexing of a new view
According to HCL, Domino requires per view roughly twice the size of the largest view or the document data (whichever is greater) of free space. If Domino estimates that there is not enough space available, it falls back to the slower standard rebuild method and writes a warning to the log:
Warning: unable to use optimized view rebuild for view due to
insufficient disk space at directory. Estimate may need
x million bytes for this view. Using standard rebuild instead.
HCL recommendation: place the temp directory on a separate drive from the data folder — this distributes I/O and ensures sufficient space.

Example configuration

Windows:
View_Rebuild_Dir=D:\REBUILD
Linux:
View_Rebuild_Dir=/local/rebuild

Notes & pitfalls

  • The specified directory must be writable by the Domino service user — otherwise the rebuild silently falls back to the system temp folder.
  • On Linux containers, /tmp is often limited to a few hundred MB (e.g. via tmpfs limits) — there View_Rebuild_Dir is practically required when larger databases are involved.
  • Related parameter: Disable_View_Rebuild_Opt=1 switches off the optimized rebuild method entirely — only as a last resort, when "insufficient disk space" warnings continue to appear for many views despite a correctly configured View_Rebuild_Dir.
  • For persistent rebuild warnings, prefer to check the path and disk capacity rather than disabling the optimization completely.
  • Domino deletes the temporary files when finished — but in case of a server crash mid-rebuild, leftovers may remain that have to be removed manually.

Sources (HCL Product Documentation)