How to optimize Oak Lucene indexes to reduce indexing time

Last update: September 17, 2026

Optimize the Oak Lucene indexes using includedPaths and excludedPaths properties.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Experience Manager 6.0 + Oak 1.0.16 or later
Adobe Experience Manager 6.1 and 6.2

Issue/Symptoms

Optimize the AEM Oak Lucene indexes to reduce reindexing time.

Resolution resolution

You can optimize the Oak Lucene indexes by fine-tuning the oak: QueryIndexDefinition with properties such as includedPaths, excludedPaths, name and indexPath.

includedPaths and excludedPaths properties restrict what paths the index traverses when reindexing and which paths it listens to for index updates.
name and indexPath properties make index logs easier to understand as they would tag the log messages with the path or name of the index. For example:

30.01.2017 14:07:12.934 *DEBUG* [ pool-8-thread-2] org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.plugins.index.lucene.LuceneIndexEditor [ damassetlucene(/oak:index/damAssetLucene)] => Indexed 9000 nodes...

Steps to optimize the indexes:

Go to http://aem-host:port/crx/de/index.jsp and log in as admin.
Browse to /oak:index.
Add the properties highlighted below [ 1] to the corresponding indexes. The includedPaths and excludedPaths properties should be multi-value String (String[ ] ).
Click Save All in CRXDe.

[ 1] /oak:index property modifications

"authorizables": {

    "includedPaths": [ "/home"] ,

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "authorizables",

    "compatVersion": 2,

    "reindex": false,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/authorizables"

    },

"cqPageLucene": {

    "includedPaths": [

      "/content",

      "/etc"

    ] ,

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "cq:Page",

    "compatVersion": 2,

    "reindex": false,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/cqPageLucene"

    },

"cqTagLucene": {

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "cqTag",

    "compatVersion": 2,

    "reindex": false,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "excludedPaths": [

      "/var",

      "/tmp",

      "/etc/replication",

      "/etc/workflow/instances",

      "/jcr:system"

    ] ,

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/cqTagLucene"

    },

"damAssetLucene": {

    "includedPaths": [ "/content/dam"] ,

    "evaluatePathRestrictions": true,

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "damassetlucene",

    "compatVersion": 2,

    "reindex": false,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/damAssetLucene"

    },

"lucene": {

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "lucene",

    "reindex": false,

    "includePropertyTypes": [ "String"] ,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "excludedPaths": [

      "/var",

      "/tmp",

      "/etc/replication",

      "/etc/workflow/instances",

      "/jcr:system"

    ] ,

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/lucene"

    },

"ntBaseLucene": {

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "tags",

    "compatVersion": 2,

    "reindex": false,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "excludedPaths": [

      "/var",

      "/tmp",

      "/etc/replication",

      "/etc/workflow/instances",

      "/jcr:system"

    ] ,

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/ntBaseLucene"

    },

"workflowDataLucene": {

    "reindexCount": 1,

    "name": "workflow",

    "compatVersion": 2,

    "reindex": false,

    "type": "lucene",

    "jcr:primaryType": "oak:QueryIndexDefinition",

    "excludedPaths": [

      "/var",

      "/tmp",

      "/etc/replication",

      "/jcr:system"

    ] ,

    "async": "async",

    "indexPath": "/oak:index/workflowDataLucene"

    }

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