A Detailed Glance On What is Lotus Notes?

IBM Lotus Notes is amongst the most advanced collaborative platforms for organizational communication and maintenance of workflow with other data management facilities. All the data of Lotus Notes is stored in NSF (notes storage facility) file format. The strongest point of the program is its unmatched security measures. The level of email based encryption and other security measures make it highly preferable amongst large-scale enterprises. The excessive usage of Notes application within organizations with and without server environment results in the increase in number of NSF database files in the manner of archives, database replicas and so on.

More on Notes Storage Facility(NSF)

NSF is a database that is supported by both IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Domino Server. It stands for Notes Storage Facility. This creates a client-server cross-platformin which IBM Notes act like a client software and IBM Domino as server software. NSF file acts as a storage pool used for storing data in document unit that is known as Notes. It contains all the information associated with a Notes Account like emails, contacts, appointments, documents, calendar entries, tasks, user data, attachments etc. in the binary form. The way Lotus Notes stores its information may differ from one version to other and from the type of installations.

The Lotus Notes Data stored in NSF files are the files that usually end with an .nsf extension. The Lotus Notes Database is either stored locally or on a server. Locally stored NSF files means it is stored on our system and Server Stored NSF files means the files stored on Domino Server, the server especially for Lotus Notes. The NSF files stored in Domino server can be downloaded by the Notes Clients for using the database in offline mode. If user of Notes makes any changes in the NSF files then, it is automatically synchronized by Domino Server in the master database. IBM Notes are used mainly for business purposes.

Default Store Location

The NSF file is saved at different location on the user’s machine as mentioned, which makes easy to understand and find saved data on the PC.

For Single User

For Multi User

Types of NSF files

The NSF files are data files stored in binary form and the default location of all these types of NSF file comes inside the Data Folder at “C:\Program Files\IBM\Notes\Data.

Main NSF Files

These NSF files are the most common NSF files where the important information associated with a Notes Account is stored like emails, calendar, tasks etc. It consists of two types:

Other NSF Files

These files are the additional NSF files, which contain information about the saved bookmarks, web browser information etc. It is divided into some files:

Encryption in .nsf File

Confidentiality, Availability, and Integrity are three main Security aspects of data. It is important to keep the confidentiality as well as Privacy of data because of the growing necessity in every single field such as organizations require for saving their information. Here, the role of Encryption comes into limelight that uses the data in such a way that it becomes unreadable for users. The NSF file can be encrypted in various ways to store the data file from unauthorized variations:

  1. Database Encryption
  2. Document Encryption
  3. Field Encryption
  4. Mail Encryption
  5. Port Encryption

Data types of .nsf

Conclusion

Different types of the NSF file serve different purposes. The NSF file is the very important file as it stores all the information of Lotus Notes. The NSF file is the proprietary file of Lotus Notes that can only be accessed with the applications supported that is Lotus Notes and Domino server. This file cannot be accessed in any other applications. If we want to use our NSF file in other applications, we need to convert the NSF file to the format of file where our desired application will support.

Reviews by Experts

The Lotus Notes Client is a great desktop application that organizes and displays databases on a user's local workstation. Its physical database files can stored either on the workstation itself or on a server. It is used to access both mail files and Notes applications.To Convert NSF Documents, Address Book & Calendar Entries user can use RecoveryTools Lotus Notes Migration Tool.

Lotus Notes – Related Solution

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