Novell Storage Services

NSS

Developer	Novell
Full name	Novell Storage Services
Introduced	1998 (NetWare 5)
Partition identifier	0x69
Structures
Directory contents	B+ tree
File allocation	?
Bad blocks	?
Limits
Max file size	8 TiB
Max number of files	8 trillion
Max filename length	256 16-bit Unicode characters
Max volume size	8 TiB
Allowed characters in filenames	Variable; depends on namespace being used
Features
Dates recorded	Access, Creation, Modified, Archived, Metadata Modified
Date range	Unknown
Forks	Yes (available through the AFP namespace, which is always loaded)
Attributes	Readonly, Hidden, System, Archive, Sharable, Transaction, Immediate Purge, Rename Inhibit, Delete Inhibit, Copy Inhibit, Link, Remote Data Access, Remote Data Inhibit, Compress Immediate, Data Stream Compress, Do Not Compress, No Stream Compress, Attr Archive, Volatile, Execute
File system permissions	Netware ACLs: Supervisor, Read, Write, Create, Erase, Modify, File Scan, Access Control; POSIX (RWX per owner, group and all) when NFS namespace is loaded
Transparent compression	Yes
Transparent encryption	Yes
Supported operating systems	Novell NetWare, SUSE Linux

Novell Storage Services (NSS) is a file system used by the Novell NetWare operating system. Recently (2004) support of NSS was introduced to SUSE Linux via low-level network NCPFS protocol. It has some unique features that make it especially useful for, but not limited to, setting up shared volumes on a file server in a Local Area Network.

NSS is a 64-bit journaling file system with a balanced tree algorithm for the directory structure. Its published specifications (as of NetWare 6.5) are:

• Maximum file size: 8TiB
• Maximum partition size: 2TiB
• Maximum device size (Physical or Logical): 2TiB
• Maximum pool size: 8TiB
• Maximum volume size: 8TiB
• Maximum files per volume: 8 trillion (practical limit is about 2 millions because of limit to maximum volume size)
• Maximum mounted volumes per server: unlimited if all are NSS
• Maximum open files per server: 1 million
• Maximum directory tree depth: limited only by client
• Maximum volumes per partition: unlimited
• Maximum extended attributes: no limit on number of attributes.
• Maximum data streams: no limit on number of data streams.
• Unicode characters supported by default
• Support for different name spaces: DOS, Microsoft Windows Long names (loaded by default), Unix, Apple Macintosh
• Support for restoring deleted files (salvage)
• Support for transparent compression
• Support for encrypted volumes
• Support for data shredding

See also

• Comparison of file systems
• List of file systems

External links

• Article about NSS
• Configuring NSS