Novell® Storage ServicesTM is a storage and file system that provides an efficient way to use all of the space on your storage devices. NSS is best used with systems that require the ability to store and maintain large volumes and numerous files or large databases.
Novell Storage Services is the default storage and file system for NetWare® 6. You use it to create, store, and maintain both traditional and NSS volumes. The NSS volumes are called logical volumes. When you install NSS, it creates a storage pool SYS: and an equal sized volume SYS:.
To mount a volume, the traditional file system scans every file and directory. Then to provide quick access to the files, NetWare stores all the meta data in memory. File system scanning slows the mounting speed. Storing the meta data for all files requires more memory as the number of files increase.
NSS speeds up the mounting process by not scanning the entire file system when you mount volumes. The memory requirements are lower because NSS does not load Meta data into the memory until you access the files.
You do not run VREPAIR on NSS volumes when the file system crashes because NSS keeps a journal of all file system transactions. After the crash, NSS scans the journal to ensure that all transactions are either completed or undone. This way volumes do not require any repair when you mount them again after the crash.
NSS uses free space from multiple storage devices. This lets you create unlimited volumes and store up to 8 trillion files in a single volume-up to 8 terabytes in size. NSS also lets you mount up to 255 volumes simultaneously.
IMPORTANT: In NetWare 5, NSS runs parallel with the traditional NetWare file system. In NetWare 6, NSS is the primary storage and management system. However, you can continue to maintain traditional partitions and volumes along with NSS. Although this documentation focuses primarily on NSS storage pools and logical volumes, it includes instructions for setting up and maintaining traditional volumes.