Improving InDesign Server performance in Enterprise Server 10 by storing files locally instead of on a file share

When InDesign Server is used for generating layout previews (for example for the Print editor of Content Station), performance is very important.

The layout preview is generated as a JPEG file and is stored in the WebEdit folder of Enterprise Server.

Configuring the location of the WebEdit folder is done via the WEBEDITDIR setting in the configserver.php file of Enterprise Server.

Choosing the location of this folder has a large impact on performance:

• Locally on the same drive as InDesign Server. This results in the best performance and stability. We therefore highly recommend to use this configuration.

Note: There is one downside to this method: it is not possible to have multiple (physical) InDesign Server machines connected. This is because only one WebEdit folder can be defined in Enterprise Server.

• Remotely on a file share, for instance where the file store is kept. This is the default configuration of Enterprise Server.

Note: When storing the WebEdit folder remotely on a file share, the location where Smart Connection stores its files (the smartconnection.noindex folder) will also be on that file share. To improve performance, the smartconnection.noindex folder can be made local to InDesign Server by using the UseCustomBaseFolder option and setting it to a local folder. This way, at least part of the file access actions become local resulting in more stability and better performance.

Document history

• 2 December 2020: Renamed from 'Improving InDesign Server performance by storing files locally instead of on a file share'.
• 2 December 2020: Article re-written.