The /noatime and /atime commands for a volume allow the administrator to control whether access times are updated when files and directories are read. They are available for NSS on Linux and NetWare beginning with OES 2 SP1 and NetWare 6.5 SP8. The setting persists across reboots.
Using /noatime is useful for backup, news servers, and mail servers where the extra disk activity associated with updating the access time is not desired. Avoiding the writes associated with updating the access time can result in measurable performance gains.
Issue the commands at the NetWare server console or in the NSS Console on Linux.
This option enables the updating of access time for both files and directories in a specified volume so that reading a file updates its access time. This is enabled by default.
This option disables the updating of access time for both files and directories in a specified volume so that reading a file does not update its access time.
You can also use the noatime option when mounting an NSS volume in a Novell Cluster Services cluster load script by using the /opt option. The atime setting is enabled by default, so it is not necessary to specify it explicitly.
For NetWare clusters, modify the mount command for the volume:
mount /opt="noatime" volume_name VOLID=number
For Linux clusters, modify the ncpcon mount command for the volume:
exit_on_error ncpcon mount /opt="noatime" volumename=volume_id
When you create a new volume on a cluster-enabled pool, Cluster Services automatically assigns it a volume ID that is unique in the entire cluster and writes the value to the cluster resource load script for the pool. When you add the /opt option to volume’s mount line in the load script, the volume ID is already part of the command.
For example, for a volume named VOL1 and a volume ID of 254, the commands would be:
mount /opt="noatime" VOL1 VOLID=254
exit_on_error ncpcon mount /opt="noatime" VOL1=254
You can view the current setting for the atime attribute by using the nss /volumes command at the NSS Console on Linux or the server console on NetWare.