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Conference decwet::advfs_support

Title:AdvFS Support/Info/Questions Notefile
Notice:note 187 is Freq Asked Questions;note 7 is support policy
Moderator:DECWET::DADDAMIO
Created:Wed Jun 02 1993
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1077
Total number of notes:4417

990.0. "Resource limitations of Advfs" by NETRIX::"[email protected]" (Feynman Lo) Wed Jan 29 1997 02:13

A customer is planning how their data of a critical system  
could be stored using Advfs. He is planning to use Digital
Unix 4.0b. He has the following conditions:

1) Each of the data directory would be required to
   store more than 200,000 files.

2) Most of the data files are small (less than 1K) and
   the size is not fixed

3) He said the files under a data directory will be removed
   regularly (per month). This may create a large extent of
   fragmentation.

4) Each file will have a very long file name.


In order to aid his planning, he is asking for the different
aspects of resource limitations of Advfs.

a) Is there any maximum value that limit the number of files
   to be stored under a single directory?

b) If the answer of a) is NO regarding a single directory alone.
   What are the other resources limitation that he should consider
   for his case?

   e.g. How could he plan and evaluate the requirement of BMT size?
   

c) What is the maximum length of a file name under Advfs?


d) Would the large extent of fragmentation cause problems
   for Adfvs?

e) Also any limit on maximum number of file domains in a system?


Grateful for any help

- Feynman


[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
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990.1My attempt to answerKITCHE::schottEric R. Schott USG Product ManagementWed Jan 29 1997 14:3992
>
>A customer is planning how their data of a critical system  
>could be stored using Advfs. He is planning to use Digital
>Unix 4.0b. He has the following conditions:
>
>1) Each of the data directory would be required to
>   store more than 200,000 files.

ok, you want plenty of memory, and up the size of the advfs cache
in /etc/sysconfigtab

>
>2) Most of the data files are small (less than 1K) and
>   the size is not fixed
>
>3) He said the files under a data directory will be removed
>   regularly (per month). This may create a large extent of
>   fragmentation.

I would initially size the BMT for the number of files
to be in the domain.

To prevent the fragmentation, run defragment regularly, and ensure
plenty of disk space.  I would suggest multiple domains, each
with multiple volumes of 10GB or less...

ensure you have free disks (of volume size)  for addvol/rmvol


>
>4) Each file will have a very long file name.
>
>
>In order to aid his planning, he is asking for the different
>aspects of resource limitations of Advfs.
>
>a) Is there any maximum value that limit the number of files
>   to be stored under a single directory?

Just a performance question, assuming you run defragment
regularly.  The memory will help...or spread out over more
directories...


>
>b) If the answer of a) is NO regarding a single directory alone.
>   What are the other resources limitation that he should consider
>   for his case?

memory

>
>   e.g. How could he plan and evaluate the requirement of BMT size?


How many files per domain is the issue for the BMT size.  If the
files are small, and you run defragment regularly, this should
be able to be stable over time once you hit steady state.

Don't overfill the disks to avoid BMT fragmentation...


>   
>
>c) What is the maximum length of a file name under Advfs?

same as Digital unix.

>
>
>d) Would the large extent of fragmentation cause problems
>   for Adfvs?

if you run defragment, the fragmentation should not be
an issue (and you don't run the disks to 0 free space).


>
>e) Also any limit on maximum number of file domains in a system?

listed in the OS limits (release notes, or technical overview...)
I think it is 256 or 512 domains a system if I recall...


>
>
>Grateful for any help
>
>- Feynman
>
>
>[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]