On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Dave Hitz wrote:
So running "maxfiles" doesn't actually consume any space when you run it. The space only gets allocate when you actually create a new file with an inode number that places it in a new part of the inode file.
So the maxfiles table is like a sparse file (wow, haven't used that term since my Apple II days) without an inode number? I think the discrepancy in 'df' output from my first message may have been caused by coincidental timing of snaphots.
I rezeroed all the filers again, and watched the df output after each stage of setting up a filer. They all started out the same, but then the disk usage appears to jump when the first snapshot is created. I think what happened the first time was that I was able to "snap sched 0" two of the filers, was distracted by other work, then continued working on the other two. In the meantime, the second pair of filers went ahead and created a snapshot, which seems to be correlated to a change in 'df' output (even though no real files were added or deleted).
Anyway, just more of my curious musings, in my attempts to see how this Netapp contraption works. ;-)