Optimizing NFS directory access for CIFS clients

About NFS directory accessibility

When you first install Data ONTAP, directories created by NFS clients are in pre-Data ONTAP 4.0 format and directories created by CIFS clients are in Unicode format. CIFS directories are immediately accessible to NFS clients, but NFS directories are not immediately accessible to CIFS clients. To access an NFS directory, CIFS clients must convert the NFS directory format from pre-Data ONTAP 4.0 format to Unicode format. This is done automatically by the filer when the access occurs.

Optimizing CIFS client access to an NFS directory

You can optimize CIFS client access to an NFS directory by performing the following tasks to eliminate the time lag created by converting an NFS directory to Unicode format:

Change Data ONTAP to create only Unicode-formatted directories, thereby eliminating the need to convert formats.
Note
You should cause Data ONTAP to create directories in Unicode format immediately after installing Data ONTAP to ensure that all directories on the filer are in Unicode format.
Configure Data ONTAP to convert existing NFS directories to Unicode format when either CIFS clients or NFS clients access directories.

Creating Unicode-formatted directories

To cause Data ONTAP to create all directories in Unicode format, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following command: options wafl.create_ucode on

Converting to Unicode format

By default, Data ONTAP converts a directory format from pre-Data ONTAP 4.0 to Unicode only when a CIFS client accesses that directory. You may want to shorten the time it takes to convert every directory to Unicode format by

Using an NFS client to distribute files in directories that contain more than 50,000 files among a greater number of subdirectories
Converting a directory format when either a CIFS client or an NFS client accesses that directory

To distribute files to subdirectories and to convert directories to Unicode format when they are accessed from either CIFS or NFS, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	If...	Then...
	You have directories that contain more than 50,000 files	Create a new CIFS directory from a Windows NT client on the same volume in the same qtree as the directory you want to convert. With the NFS `mv` command, rename files from the directory you want to convert into the directory you just created. Optionally remove the old directory. Optionally rename the new directory.



	You have directories that contain fewer than 50,000 files	Go to Step 2.
2	Enter the following command: options wafl.convert_ucode on on causes Data ONTAP to convert directories accessed by CIFS or NFS to Unicode format.