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Data Storages and Sizing

Netwrix Data Classification uses two forms of data storage:

  • NDC SQL database — SQL Server database that stores product configuration and metadata for the data sources.
  • NDC Index — a full-text search index that comprises a set of files in the proprietary format (.CSE).

NDC SQL database​

Ensure you have NDC Server and NDC SQL database deployed on different machines.

Netwrix recommends hosting the NDC SQL database on a dedicated SQL Server instance.

  • Minimal requirement is SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition.

  • Estimate required disk space assuming 10 - 12 KB per indexed object. For example, for 5, 000, 000 objects, the database size will be approximately 50 GB. Due to built-in limitations of size and capacity, SQL Server Express edition is only suitable for evaluation and PoC environments (processing up to 1,000,000 documents).

    TIP: Netwrix strongly recommends using SSD storage for both the database and Netwrix Data Classification servers.

  • If configuring database settings via SQL Server Management Studio, you will need to set Autogrowth / Maxsize values for the PRIMARY database files as follows:

    • File growth: 128 MB - recommended value for small to medium environment, 512 MB - for large environment, i.e. if planning to index data sources containing 16, 000, 000+ objects.
    • Maximum File Size - select Unlimited.

  • Ensure that the Recovery model for this database is set to Simple. To prevent log files from growing excessively, don't change the recovery model.

NDC Index​

Required disk space for the NDC Index file storage will depend, in particular, on the data processing mode you plan to use (No Index, Keyword or Compound Term).

As a general estimate, required space can be calculated as 35% of the total size of the data you plan to be indexed. For example, if you have 45 GB of files, they will require up to 15 GB for the NDC Index files.

Scalability and Performance​

Scalability and performance testing revealed that based on the number of objects to classify, the environments can be ranged as follows:

Number of objects to classifyEnvironmentComment
Up to 1, 000, 000Proof-of-concept and small-size environment
Up to 16, 000, 000Mid-size environment
Up to 64, 000, 000Large-size environment
More than 64, 000, 000Extra-large environmentSystem architect's assistance is required for deployment planning requires

Again, consider that for the large-size and extra-large environments, Netwrix strongly recommends configuring a cluster of several NDC Servers and applying DQS mode to these clustered servers. See Configuring NDC Servers Cluster and Load Balancing with DQS Mode for details.