NetApp filer is fully supported for use with MS Exchange. I don't see how this could lead to a problem more than any direct-attaced storage.
NetApp choking on lots of small files? I don't think so. WAFL handles small files far better than most file systems notably UFS.
Waste of space? Maybe. NetApp uses 4K blocks so if you have lots of really small files <4K then you'll waste quite a bit of space.
Supak
--- Martin Hannigan hannigan@world.std.com wrote:
For both performance and supportability reasons,
it is extremely inadvisable
to put Exchange mailboxes/private stores/public
stores on anything other
than a filesystem which is directly-connected to
the NT server in question.
People do all sorts of odd things with NetApps
just because they can - and
don't get me wrong, I love my F740 - but this is
just plain crazy. For your
own peace of mind, don't do it.
So the netapp still chokes on lots of active small files i.e. like usenet news, etc? We were thinking about turning ours into a hardcore news spool..but I remember a few years ago there was some issue with the millions of < 64KB file sizes..
-M
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one Place. http://shopping.yahoo.com/
NetApp filer is fully supported for use with MS Exchange. I don't see how this could lead to a problem more than any direct-attaced storage.
NetApp choking on lots of small files? I don't think so. WAFL handles small files far better than most file systems notably UFS.
Great. That's why I mentioned it, but the netapp of a few years ago wasnt the same, or so Ive come to believe.
Waste of space? Maybe. NetApp uses 4K blocks so if you have lots of really small files <4K then you'll waste quite a bit of space.
The average usenet article is under 64KB. 4K is about the average size of an email, including headers.
As far as using it for Exchange, *I* would, but that's me. Generally, Microsoft and NFS don't mix well, even though they give lots of lip service to it.
-M
Waste of space? Maybe. NetApp uses 4K blocks so if you have lots of really small files <4K then you'll waste quite a bit of space.
Supak
All files potentially waste space, regardless of size. With a block size of 4k, you can expect each file to waste an average of 2k. A 17k file uses 5 blocks (20k) of which 3k is wasted. A 15k file uses 4 blocks (16k) of which 1k is wasted. So the amount of storage wasted is roughly the number of files multiplied by 2k bytes. Divide this by the total disk space used to get the percentage of space wasted. I just checked one of our volumes that contains user home directories. It has 3680867 files and 146203264K used, which means about 5% is wasted.
Steve Losen scl@virginia.edu phone: 804-924-0640
University of Virginia ITC Unix Support
-
Martin Hannigan -
Steve Losen -
Supak backup e-mail account