Another discussion recently popped up on AD Org about indexing the objectClass attribute. Don Hatcherl (previously mentioned on this blog multiple times – short and sweet, when he talks about AD, I and everyone else with any sense listens…) said the following about indexing objectClass…
…An early version of ESE (the one shipped in Exchange 4.0, and that never shipped with AD) had perf problems indexing highly non-unique values. We handled this during development by inventing the ObjectCategory concept and creating a climate of fear to prevent people from indexing ObjectClass. Both of these were, in retrospect, stupid ideas. By the time Windows 2000 shipped ESE’s perf problem (ok, ok, this particular ESE perf problem) had been fixed, but by then there was too much organizational inertia around ObjectCategory to get rid of it. It took until Windows 2008 to do the correct thing.
You should do two things:
1) index ObjectClass
2) accept my apology for the confusion
DonH
Thanks Don!
You’ve also been saying it for years on the newsgroups and activedir so this should be common knowledge now after Don also added his blessing.
I found the “climate of fear” comment the most interesting.
Hahahaha! Gotta love Don’s apology 🙂