Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers

figure 4. performance effects on file caching

NetBench 7.0.2 Test - Client Side File Caching Comparison

(Higher is Better)

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

1 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60

Number of Clients

Throughput (Mbps)

File Caching OFF

File Caching ON

Results: Using the Novell Traditional File System (TFS) and with a workload of 60

clients, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server (shown in figure 4) provided an average 321%

more throughput across the entire length of the graph with file caching turned on versus

file caching turned off.

performance effects

of TFS versus NSS

By default, the NSS file system is installed during the installation of NetWare 6 unless you

decide to override it during normal installation. The choice of which file system to use

depends on several issues, including storage requirements, security, etc. NSS is typically

recommended in enterprise-type operations requiring terabytes of storage. On the other

hand, the Novell Traditional File System (TFS) is Novell’s original file system. It is used

typically for small to medium size business operations. Figure 5 shows the performance

effects of TFS compared to NSS. A more in-depth comparison of the Novell TFS and NSS

is beyond the scope of this document.

figure 5. performance effects of TFS compared to NSS

NetBench 7.0.2 Test - NSS vs. TFS Comparison