Specifications

NetWare 3.12 and 4.1: Default = 5 minutes 29.6 seconds
Increasing the Turbo FAT re-use wait time helps ensure that the index structures
are not flushed if the file is reused quickly. For example, a large database file
might be accessed frequently throughout the day, with many file load and save
operations. By increasing this parameter there is an increased likelihood of
servicing the file request from a Turbo FAT index, thereby improving
performance.
5.3.1.4 Directory Caching
Directory caching allows fast access to frequently used directories. When
NetWare receives a read request from a workstation, it begins by searching the
directory and FAT cache to determine the location of the file which will ultimately
be either on disk or in cache. A directory cache buffer is a portion of the file
server memory that holds entries from the directory table. A directory entry
stays in a cache buffer as long as it′s being accessed frequently.
The server will allocate a minimum number of directory cache buffers at boot
time and then increase this value automatically as the demand grows for more
buffers.
NetWare has parameters to set both the minimum and maximum number of
buffers available for directory caching. These parameters can be increased to
improve performance as directory service requests are more likely to be
serviced from the cache. However, the following items should be considered:
•
If the minimum value is set too low, this will cause an unnecessary delay in
the allocation of additional directory cache buffers, thus slowing response
time to directory searches.
•
If the maximum value is set too high, this can consume too much memory
and affect the file cache memory pool size. Therefore, the server must have
enough memory to accommodate this increase.
There is also a parameter to affect the time delay before allocation takes place
and this can be decreased to improve performance.
You can modify the values using set commands in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file as
follows:
NetWare 3.12 and 4.1
SET MAXIMUM DIRECTORY CACHE BUFFERS=VALUE
Default = 500
Range = 20 to 4000
SET DIRECTORY CACHE ALLOCATION WAIT TIME=VALUE
Default = 2.2 seconds
Range = 0.5 to 120 seconds
178 NetWare Integration Guide