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How to report file sizes within a volume using the filestats command and how to use this information to determine the volume activity

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Applies to

Data ONTAP 8

Description

The output of the filestats   command displays the following information:

  • How many files are in a volume?
  • How old are the files?
  • Which users and groups create the majority of files?
  • Which hours of the day are the busiest for a file activity?

The following is the command syntax for filestats without any options:
filerA>filestats volume volume_name snapshot snapshot_name

You can display a summary of file statistics within a volume on a storage system by reading the file information from a snapshot copy that you specify. File statistics help
to determine when to schedule the creation of snapshot copies, by enabling you to see when the most file activity takes place on a volume. The information also helps
to determine the snapshot copy disk consumption. For more information on the filestats options, see the Data ONTAP System Administration Guide.

The information provided by filestats can be used to:

  • Change the user and group quotas, and to schedule more snapshots during the busiest times of the day.
  • Tracking the file ages can be used to determine the rate-of-change necessary to calculate the optimal snapshot reserve settings and snapshot retention.
  • To prioritize the schedule of tape backups and SnapMirror and SnapVault replication. The most active volumes might need to be given priority over large, but less active, volumes.
  • To prioritize the backup of a volume depending upon the file sizes. A backup of a volume with a few large files happens faster than a backup of a volume with many small files. Hence, knowing the ‘number’ and ‘size’ of files that are accumulating in a volume can significantly affect backups.
  • This information is also valuable when implementing FlexShare and using the priority command to prioritize system resources by volume.

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