Network Storage Service usage characteristics

A study of the usage of the UNIX-based Network Storage Service (NSS) at Sandia National Laboratories is described. This NSS usage characterization study was conducted to determine how the NSS is being used and to identify opportunities to improve its usage. The determination of the NSS usage characteristics was made possible by the collection of File Transport Protocol (FTP) and Network File System (NFS) activity data. The average daily usage for the period used in the study indicated that approximately 5 gigabytes are transferred daily with FTP and 0.5 gigabytes are transferred daily with NFS. Since the sample period used in the study is typically a slow time, this daily rate is expected to increase in the coming months. It is shown that the NSS is being used primarily as an archive, with a 4 to 1 ratio of bytes stored to bytes retrieved