I've got a little over 12 million files on one partition. Backup doesn't take so long now that we are doing block level. Back when we did file backup it was upwards of 20 hours.
> From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: # of files on Windows server, is 4 million too many? > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 13:48:34 +0000 > > I think your solution is likely to be more related to backup software and > settings than doing anything with file numbers. > > We do around 11m files each weekend with reasonably little problem. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: 06 September 2011 21:01 > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: # of files on Windows server, is 4 million too many? > > I've got a virtualized Win2k3 R2 fully patched server on ESX 3.5 - the OS > partition is on the ESX box. > > The data drives are spread across 4 SAN LUNs, (3 Lefthand units with two-way > replication and I'm running out of space) holding , 6,265,927 files at > 3,493,033,902,080 bytes. I haven't stopped to count the number of > directories, but none of them hold anywhere near 10k files. > > A full backup of all LUNS takes from Friday 8PM until Tuesday AM - or later. > Tapes go out the door on Wednesday. > > I'm looking for a better solution too. > > Kurt > > On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 10:15, David Lum <[email protected]> wrote: > > Here’s the results from a single logical (SAN) drive on one of our > > file > > servers: > > Total Files Listed: > > > > 4661023 File(s) 681,427,607,680 bytes > > > > > > > > On this logical drive are our primary shares for users and shared > > data, but if no single folder has more than 2000 files does it matter? > > I’m thinking still yes. > > > > > > > > And yes, it takes FOREVER to do any kid of file maintenance on this. > > > > > > > > Dave > > > > > > > > > > > > From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:[email protected]] > > Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 8:57 AM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: RE: # of files on Windows server > > > > > > > > Consider this: NTFS is a type of database. And not a very efficient > > one either. And, for very small files, the files are actually stored > > within the file system, while with larger files, NTFS has pointers to > > the actual file data stored in the FS. > > > > > > > > Storage size has exploded in the last 10 years. However, performance > > has not matched the size expansion. > > > > > > > > If I’m going to simply OPEN or CREATE a small file – number of files > > has little impact. NTFS is just going to create a new entry in the database. > > > > > > > > If I need to find, list, or extend a file – well, it’s going to take longer. > > > > > > > > If I need to enumerate files (that is, get a directory listing) the > > more files I’ve got, the longer it’s going to take. > > > > > > > > It “can be shown” that having more than about 1K files in a directory > > will effect enumeration. It becomes really noticeable (IMHO) around > > 10K and heads rapidly downhill after that. > > > > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > > > Michael B. Smith > > > > Consultant and Exchange MVP > > > > http://TheEssentialExchange.com > > > > > > > > From: David Lum [mailto:[email protected]] > > Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 11:46 AM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: # of files on Windows server > > > > > > > > Recently we had a thread about how many files get to be too many for > > reasonable performance. Would this be just per folder, or possibly > > logical drive in general? Links/documents would work too. > > > > David Lum > > Systems Engineer // NWEATM > > Office 503.548.5229 // Cell (voice/text) 503.267.9764 > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > --- > > To manage subscriptions click here: > > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > > or send an email to [email protected] > > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > --- > > To manage subscriptions click here: > > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > > or send an email to [email protected] > > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > --- > > To manage subscriptions click here: > > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > > or send an email to [email protected] > > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > -- > MIRA Ltd > > Watling Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 0TU, England > Registered in England and Wales No. 402570 > VAT Registration GB 100 1464 84 > > The contents of this e-mail are confidential and are solely for the use of > the intended recipient. 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