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What are the current eCS hard disk storage limits?

Started by NNYITGuy, 2008.03.03, 14:45:21

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NNYITGuy

I am hosting a service that processes nearly 2 million files for my clients and I currently have WD 500Gig drives in use.  I want to use a larger drive with a single JFS partition.

I heard mentioned at Warpstock 07 that there were problems with using hard disks that were physically larger that 750Gig.  Is this true? Do the latest DANI drivers released recently help in any way? ???

Thank you,
Todd Simpson (aka NNYITGuy)
Todd J Simpson (IT Consultant)
Business Automation Technologies
(Professional Products and Services.  Business to Business...)

warpcafe

Hi Todd,

I think there's two things that have an impact on limitation.
First -as you said- the harddisk/controller driver(s), secondly also the file system driver you chose for the partition/volume.

To begin with #2, here's in regards to JFS (from ecomstation.com):
QuoteDoes JFS have any limitations ?

The JFS filesystem was designed in response to modern requirements. It has a sufficient margin of safety to work without serious problems for some time.

    * maximal volume size - 2 terabytes.
    * maximal file size - 2 terabytes.
    * maximal files quantity - 4 billions.
    * maximal filename size - 256 symbols.

JFS for eComStation is ready for usage on SMP machines. Today's processor manufacturers have finished the megahertz race and are concentrating on SMP and multi-core systems development.

For the hardware/controller drivers, here's what Daniela stated in the danis506r182.zip package doc on hobbes:
Quote
...
- supposed to work with drive capacities up to 2 TiB (OS/2 ADD limit), tested with drives up to 2 TiB now
...

So in theory, it should work. :-) However... is that 500Gig drive a built-in one or are you using any kind of USB to attach it? I can't tell for possible limitations that arise from the usage of USB drivers...(if any?).

Hope this helps, regards,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

RobertM

Hi Todd,

Some additional documentation for JFS (from the Linux prject) can be found here:

http://jfs.sourceforge.net/project/pub/jfslwe0103.pdf

Keep in mind (as the doc says kind of vaguely) some of the numbers listed pertain to JFS as a 64bit filesystem, which will not be the case for OS/2 or most Linux builds. In those places (as I dont think the doc states the 32bit numbers), follow WarpCafe's numbers. The doc though might provide you other insites.

As for number of files, even HPFS can exceed a million files (currently running a drive with about 1.2 million on HPFS386), so, you should not run into any problems there - a few days ago, I archived that drive to another server onto a JFS partition and also experienced no problems - and one big benefit: chkdsk times are far faster on the JFS drive - and one minor drawback: the HPFS partition is only wasting (avg - not exact) 256MB of space (due to files not ending at exactly the 512byte boundary) while JFS is wasting (avg again) 2GB of space. That "behavior" can be changed by formatting the JFS volume with a block size of 512bytes (like HPFS' default and only size)... but on a large disk, isn't really necessary.


As a side note, depending on what version of OS/2 or eCS you are using, you may wish to install the latest version of JFS (there were a bunch of fixes since the initial release). That may not be relevant to you if you have the newest version of eCS - but will be if you have v1.0 or OS/2 Warp 4 or WSeB's initial releases. I'm currently running WSeB CP2 PF with no updates and no problems noted.

-Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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RobertM

IBM has some extensive docs here:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.baseadmn/doc/baseadmndita/fs_size_limit.htm

From what little I have read in it, I would read through the section on JFS Log Size... it may be very pertinent to working with large amounts of files (especially if they get changed frequently).

Keep in mind what parts apply to JFS32 (OS/2 and most Linux) and JFS64 (AIX and maybe 64bit Linux).

-R


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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NNYITGuy

Thank you for the responses guys...

I am using internal SATA drives.  I know that DANI and JFS supports upto 2 terabytes.  But, I do remember specifically that someone at Warpstock 07 (Toronto) had problems with 750G and larger SATA drives.  I just do not remember hearing or reading anything else for problems or solutions.  I need to increase my storage and I am trying to get up to speed on this before I invest money.  Has anyone ventured this path specifically?

:FYI:
I am using internal SATA drives now and hope to use eSATA external drives in end of August 08 for hot swap backup purposes.  DANI supports command line options for this as per DANI docs.  I hope to start testing in June 08.  If anybody has any ideas, please send them my way...

Than you for all your help! :)
Todd J Simpson (IT Consultant)
Business Automation Technologies
(Professional Products and Services.  Business to Business...)