John,

I would be very reticent to use UNLOADDB/LOADDB (note : not DUMPDB,
UNLOADDB was new at 3.7) in order to resolve a performance problem.
This is a non-trivial undertaking.

I did it on two databases last year after having split the service
into two.  I was left with many GBs of database I could not utilise
in one DB and I wanted to regain space : that was very successful.
The other reason was to tidy up the larger DB after many years of
service and although the initial gain was impressive (about 30-40%)
the algorithm for space utilisation afterwards meant that it rapidly
expanded (and I don't believe that has been changed?).  I did some
DB performance measurements (my own crude metrics : EXPIRE INVENTORY
performance was one) and could discern no measurable improvement.

The platform base I did this on was AIX and the original DBs were
about 60GB.  The one that was really only 4GB after the split took
about 8 hours (on an RS6000/R40) and reduced to the 4GB.  The other
(really 60GB) took about 2 days (reducing to 40GB).

I think the likelyhood of it impacting on Netware restore performance
would be almost nil (my own honest opinion).  I'd be interested in
who advised you to do this?

I hope this helps ...

Sheelagh
--
Sheelagh Treweek
Sheelagh Treweek
Oxford University Computing Services
Email: sheelagh.treweek AT oucs.ox.ac DOT uk
Phone: +44 (0)1865 273205 Fax:-273275