Short answer, if you have 1,000 files of 1mb each, that's 1,000 times the software ( and drive heads ) have to seek back to the directory for each filename and physical location pointer on the disk ... So if you have hundreds of files, you've got to find the file, request open to read, read the data, request close from read for each one ... In one larger file, you only have the one request to open to read, and each block points to the next block to read ... In a way, takes out a lot of 'handshaking' in the disk I/O process, which is VERY inefficient
many if not most of your current files are smaller than your physical block size, whereas in a single larger file, the entire block could comprise multiple files worth of data, so more data read for each block request ... And lastly, if compressed, the actual resulting file size could end up much smaller than the size of the combined raw files, if your transactions files are mostly plain text, compression could be anywhere from 20% to 80% efficient. Even at *only* 20% efficiency you'd be reading an 8mb file instead of a 10mb file ( you'd be displacing the efficiency by the zip and unzip process overhead, but that wouldn't directly affect your backup program's ability to capture the file ) And you didn't say, is the backup local to the Aloha directory, or are you traversing some type of WAN link ? Erik Goldoff IT Consultant Systems, Networks, & Security -----Original Message----- From: Bryan Garmon [mailto:bryan.gar...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:04 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Anyone using Radiant Systems Aloha Point Of Sale? What's the link between the file size and the efficiency? I'm fuzzy when it comes to understanding chunk sizes and bit rates and such. On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Erik Goldoff <egold...@gmail.com> wrote: > I know Longhorn Steakhouse used to use Aloha before Darden acquired > them, not sure if they still do ... But if the backup program has > problems, wonder if you could script a zip program to encapsulate all > the files into one larger zip that the backup program might be able to > stream much more efficiently > > > > Erik Goldoff > IT Consultant > Systems, Networks, & Security > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
