Re: Use of the IFS

["Lukas Beeler" <lukas.beeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 22:26, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> tasks, calendars, and other data in a single stream file.  Although Outlook has a look and feel of a database application, it lacks many database functions because it doesn't store data in database tables.  It's limited to single users, and lacks index, search, and report capabilities.

The .PST format used by Outlook is a database format. It has
checkpoints, logfiles, search and indexing capabilities, and if you
were really obsessed with MAPI you could also write reports. If you
look at the MAPI documentation, it quickly becomes obvious that you're
dealing with a database.

No, it's not a generic, relational database like DB/2, but instead
something proprietary that evolved together with the development of
Outlook itself.

For Exchange, it's more obvious, as Exchange uses the well-known Jet
Blue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Storage_Engine) database
backend. Backing up Exchange is similar to backing up a a well known
RDBMS like DB/2 - you have to take care of binlogs/journals and the
database itself.

Both ESE and Jet Blue are single-user databases, i.E. they may only be
used by one process at a time. This is similar to Notes which has .NSF
files instead of .PST, and the Domino Server also stores those in the
IFS (though someone with actual Domino/Notes will probably be more
accurate about this topic than i am).