That could be a good solution. I know for me, my problem is not having a
good way to identify old files that aren't being used by anyone. I'd love
to use the atime, but our backup software, not to mention the virus
scanners, updates that.
Our filers are just filling up with so much junk I don't know what to do.
All I can do right now is ask people to delete stuff, but we all know how
ineffective that is. And if I ever point to a given file or directory and
say "do we need that?" the answer is inevitably "I don't know what that is,
so we better keep it." Feh.
And management always questions me when I say that they should expect filer
space usage to pretty much double every year. Statements like "There's no
way we could possibly need 2 Terabytes by next year" are currently ringing
in my ears.
--
Mike Sphar - Sr Systems Administrator - Engineering Support Services -
Remedy Corporation
BOFH, GWP, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE, BFD
"We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?" - Niels
Bohr
"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands and hoist
the black flag." - H.L. Mencken (paraphrased)
The only "right" way to do this is not to update atime in the first
place. Some operating systems provide a method, possibly privileged,
of allowing files to be read without atime being updated. As Steve says,
NetApp filers currently only have an all-or-nothing switch for this.
But maybe a more selective option (no-atime-update-if-host=virus.scan
-and-user=detox?) is what people who want to do transparent content
scans should be asking for.
Chris Thompson University of Cambridge Computing Service,
Email: cet1@ucs.cam.ac.uk New Museums Site, Cambridge CB2 3QG,
Phone: +44 1223 334715 United Kingdom.
Mike Sphar