diff --git a/content/good_hcc_practices/_index.md b/content/good_hcc_practices/_index.md index ecc888faf8b5e26fd7cf0a3cf7ffcf09e9b45518..9ec3097a7e1c9e825ca955f9b16be3eced37bf67 100644 --- a/content/good_hcc_practices/_index.md +++ b/content/good_hcc_practices/_index.md @@ -36,6 +36,16 @@ all the necessary files need to be either moved to a permanent storage, or delet disk, in your program.** This approach stresses the file system and may cause general issues. Instead, consider reading and writing large blocks of data in memory over time, or utilizing more advanced parallel I/O libraries, such as *parallel hdf5* and *parallel netcdf*. +#### Large numbers of files considerations + * **No POSIX file system performs well with an excessive number of files**, as each file operation +requires opening and closing, which is relatively expensive. + * Moreover, network data transfer operations that involve frequent scanning (walking) of every +file in a set for syncing operations (backups, automated copying) can become excessively taxing for +network file systems, especially at scale. + * Large numbers of files can take an inordinate amount of time to transfer in or out of network +file systems during data migration operations. + * **Computing workflows can be negatively impacted by unnecessarily large numbers of file operations**, including file transfers. + ## Internal and External Networks * **Use archives to transfer large number of files.** If you are performing file transfer of