Unicode is a 16-bit character encoding system that includes all major languages. It is used by WIN 32 applications and file names in the Windows 95 and later systems.
Unicode-format directories can contain file names in Unicode; other directories contain file names in ASCII.
Unicode-format directories are slightly larger than other directories. It can take several minutes to convert large directories to Unicode format. Creating Unicode-format directories means fewer directories to convert.
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.
You can optimize a CIFS client's access to an NFS directory by creating new NFS directories in Unicode format.
The default for this field is Off.
Setting this field to On causes all new directories on a volume to be created in Unicode format. You choose this to facilitate file sharing and eliminate conversion time.
Setting this field to Off causes NFS directories to be created in a format that uses only NFS names. The first CIFS access of such a directory converts the directory to Unicode format. CIFS directories are created in Unicode format. You choose Off to save space or do not use your filer for CIFS.