Novell OPEN ENTERPRISE SERVER 2 SP2 - ADMINISTRATION, Implementation Manual, Page: 134 / 288

134 OES 2 SP2: Planning and Implementation Guide
n
ov
do
cx (e
n)
22
Ju
n
e 20
09
iFolder
Novell iFolder does not depend on a particular file system. Based on the client workload, the file
system should be chosen at the server side. Because it mostly serves user data, a file system that can
scale with a large number of files is the best suited in most deployments, making Reiser and NSS the
best bets. Novell iFolder maintains its own ACL, so having an NSS file system that supports a rich
ACL might be redundant.
GroupWise
GroupWise deals with many little files. Because only the application process is accessing the file
system, the added overhead of the rich ACL and file attributes found in NSS is redundant. The
necessary characteristics are a file system whose performance remains relatively constant regardless
of the number of files that are in the volume, and that performs well with small files. Best bets would
be ReiserFS, XFS, and NSS. Ext3 does not handle large systems well (where you have more than
10,000 files in the system).
Novell Cluster Services
Although Novell Cluster Services
TM
does not depend on a particular file system, you must use the
same file systems from node to node. For example, if you are using NSS on one node, you need to
use NSS on the failover node as well.
Dynamic Storage Technology
Dynamic Storage Technology does not depend on a particular file system in principle; however, it is
currently supported only on NSS volumes.
Novell plans to add support for additional file systems in the future. When that happens, it will be
important to remember that file systems cannot be mixed between volumes and shadow volumes.
For example, if you choose to shadow an NSS volume, the secondary volume must also be NSS.
13.2.5 NSS Planning Considerations
Consider the following when planning for NSS:
Š
“Device Size Limit” on page 134
Š
“Other NSS Planning Topics” on page 134
Device Size Limit
NSS recognizes logical or physical devices up to 2 terabytes (TB) in size. If you have a storage disk
larger than 2 TB, use the storage device’s management utility to carve the disk into smaller logical
devices to use with the NSS file system.
This is especially important to remember when planning for NSS volumes on Linux because the size
limit for Linux POSIX volumes is 8 TB.
Other NSS Planning Topics
To plan for NSS volumes—including prerequisites, security considerations, and moving volumes
between Linux and NetWare—see “
Planning NSS Storage Solutions ” in the OES 2 SP2: NSS File
System Administration Guide .