Wanda, please have your server admins perform some performance troubleshooting to see what might gain you the most improvements. Here is a link to help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779038(WS.10).aspx
If you can't make heads or tails of this I'll try to help. Also, there are some simple things that you'll want to check--e.g. indexing service(off), anti-virus(exclude directory with all those files). If possible, I would consider moving to a 64bit platform. While it will not solve any potential spindle problems, it will allow you to put more usable RAM on the system and hold more data in RAM for caching. Ray -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Prather, Wanda Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:35 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Windows servers with a kazillion files and Win2K8... Thanks for the reply and the reference; I'll read that. It's a 32 bit system. Do you think adding RAM will help with the issues navigating the file tree? -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Storer, Raymond Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:22 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Windows servers with a kazillion files and Win2K8... Wanda, is this a 32 or 64 bit system? An NTFS file system will support about 4 Billion files on a single volume http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781134(WS.10).aspx . If you are having performance issues with this and you can switch it to a 64bit platform and add loads of RAM, I would do it. Ray -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Prather, Wanda Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:03 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: [ADSM-L] Windows servers with a kazillion files and Win2K8... I have a site with an application that generates kazillions of tiny files that are stored forever. I've already yelled about it, but it's a purchased, customer-facing black-box app that they really can't change. (Naturally, when it was bought umpty years ago, nobody thought about the problem reaching this size or what the ramifications would be.) Every day the app creates more files. They have multiple Win2K3 servers that already have multiple luns containing over 35M files each, one is over 75M files. We are using journaling to back them up successfully (most days). But it's a struggle just to expand the file tree with Windows explorer, and there are exposures on the days when the journal gets overrun (takes 72 hours for TSM to scan the filesystem and revalidate the journal). Looking for anything that might help save our bacon. Has anybody had experience with this issue and Win2K8? Does Win2K8 do any better than Win2K3 at handling huge numbers of files in 1 NTFS directory? Upgrading the OS is something application-independent we might be able to do. Thanks for any insight! W Wanda Prather | Senior Technical Specialist | wprat...@icfi.com<mailto:wprat...@icfi.com> | www.jasi.com<www.jasi.com%20> ICF Jacob & Sundstrom | 401 E. Pratt St, Suite 2214, Baltimore, MD 21202 | 410.539.1135 CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email and any attachments are for the exclusive and confidential use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, distribute or take action in reliance upon this message. If you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return email and promptly delete this message and its attachments from your computer system. We do not waive attorney-client or work product privilege by the transmission of this message. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email and any attachments are for the exclusive and confidential use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, distribute or take action in reliance upon this message. If you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return email and promptly delete this message and its attachments from your computer system. We do not waive attorney-client or work product privilege by the transmission of this message.