NSS Volumes
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Dec 2002
Q.
We will soon be installing a new NetWare 6 server with a large NSS volume. The system will have the following configuration:
2-18GB Raid 1 (Sys)
8-73GB Raid 5 (Vol1 - NSS)
If I understand correctly, NSS performs best (in general) with the largest hardware block size possible when configuring the Raid drive(s). NetWare will configure NSS with 4KB blocks regardless and there is no way to change it. Is this the configuration path being taken in NetWare 6 with NSS volumes?
Randy "RAID" Renderson
A.
Dear Randy: NSS, not just for NetWare 6, uses a 4KB allocation unit (as NSS sees it). The device driver and hardware can do whatever they want, and that includes your RAID devices. After all, disk drives today are still stuck with 512B sectors, yet that fact is hidden by drivers. It's called buffering.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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