No schema changes

.NET:

Db4oFactory.Configure().DetectSchemaChanges(false)

Advantage

will prevent db4o from analysing the class structure upon opening a database file.

Effect

Upon system startup, db4o will use reflection to scan the structure of all persistent classes. This process can take some time, if a large number of classes are present in the database file. For the best possible startup performance on "warm" database files (all classes already analyzed in a previous startup), this feature can be turned off.

Alternate Strategies

Instead of using one database file to store a huge and complex class structure, a system may be more flexible and faster, if multiple database files are used. In a client/server setup, database files can also be switched from the client side with

.NET:

((ExtClient)objectContainer).SwitchToFile(databaseFile)