[OpenAFS-devel] Requesting clarification regarding volume size limit.

[Kangesh Gunaseelan]

Hi,

It will be great if someone could confirm my understanding of volume size
limits and answer some questions regarding how AFS enforces volume size limits.
The release notes says volume sizes are limited to 8GB.  This limit really
applies only to files that are part of the specific volume, right?  In
other words, even though the installation process calls for creation of a
root.cell volume that doesn't mean the total AFS file space is limited to
just 8GB, instead, there can be any number of volumes in addition to
root.cell and each volume's total file size is limited to 8 GB, right?  The
total file space would just be limited to the cumulative partition sizes
and an individual partition size would be limited to the standard
filesystem size limitation, right?

Also, how does AFS apply this volume limit?  For example, will AFS prevent
a file from being copied to a volume if that particular file's size causes
the size limit to exceed 8 GB? If AFS allows copying to occur, what would
be the side effects? 
Or, is volume limit just a recommendation and not a hard limitation?

Thanks much,
Kangesh