I have several concerns about the migration process from an AlphaServer 2100 (Digital UNIX 4.0D) to a NetApp 740. If anyone has specific information / suggestions about any of these issues, you can mail me individually, or the list if it abides by list policy.
1) Filesystem layout
We have about 5000 user home directories and several (maybe 10) other logical areas that we will be migrating. Total disk space used initially will be small, about 35G. My guess is that it would be best to keep user directories as a logically separated area (from, say, Alpha binaries) because of differences in default quotas and snapshot and backup policies. Does this sound reasonable, or could it be best to lump them together?
2) Large directory constraints
Also, for the user areas, what are the practical constraints on the number of files in a directory? I am most used to AdvFS, under which large directories can be slow to open and read, if a user tries to do something like tab completion on a filename in a directory of 1000 entries.
Will I see the same kind of behavior with WAFL, and if so, does anyone have a good suggestion on breaking up the user space? We were thinking of using directory structure organization (nothing at logical partition level) for this.
3) Quotas
How sophisticated are the quota manipulation tools? Are there utilities for changing whole sets of quotas, or do admins just use homemade scripts for this? (And if so, does anyone have a pointer to a useful script set?) Also, any suggestions on the best way to migrate AdvFS quotas on user directories? I can foresee the C or scripting part of the AdvFS side of this, but I have no idea what tools we even have to work with on the WAFL side.
4) Backups
I am used to vdump and amanda, which don't split single backup sets across multiple tapes. Do the native filer backup utilities handle that? And are backups on a per logical partition basis?
5) Snapshot policies
These are defined on a per logical or per physical partition basis?
We will be getting the filer documentation before the filer, so that should answer my questions about snapshot policies, backup and quota utilities. But any additional info on these, pointers to public scripts, and insight on the file organization issues is appreciated. Also, references to other info sources are appreciated.
Thanks.