Everybody likes when software performs well and feels “snappy”, guided by that mantra I’ve found that with the help of one “sametime.ini” parameter for LDAP tuning, you can improve the “login” performance of the clients and the time it takes to load Sametime Business Cards considerably.
By setting the “ST_DB_LDAP_CONNECTIONS_NUMBER” parameter, to a value greater than one, you can increase the maximum number of the LDAP connections HCL Sametime components can use to access the LDAP repository. Per default, every HCL Sametime module, which needs LDAP access, will use one connection to access the repository (“StAuthentication.dll” is the exception, as it uses two connections). Details about that can be read from the official documentation.
In most Sametime environments I’ve deployed, I have set the parameter “ST_DB_LDAP_CONNECTIONS_NUMBER” to two or three, depending on the Sametime Community server and LDAP server hardware. This led, at least subjectively, to 40-60% faster login times and about the same faster response when loading the Sametime Business Cards.
Make sure to monitor the hardware utilization and the performance of both the HCL Sametime Community server(s) and of the LDAP server(s), as changing this parameter will have a direct impact on it. Also, consider that setting the value too high can have negative effects.
Thoughts about HCL Connections, Domino and Sametime 