Centera Object Limit

[Mike]

Hey all,

Just had an issue that I would like to share in hopes that you do not
run into the same issue. During archiving the follow errors were
showing:

Mailbox Name - Inbox\ - Subject=RE: <XXXXX>, Datetime=6/30/2010
xx:xx:xx AM, MsgID=XXXXXXXX : Error saving EMC stream: \"Unable to
write stream to cluster: (-10042)\" (FPClip still in use)

Mailbox Name - Inbox\ - Subject=RE: <XXXXX>, Datetime=6/30/2010
xx:xx:xx AM, MsgID=XXXXXXXX : Error outputting message:

This was due to reaching the "object count" limit within the Centera
system. By default, each node of a Centera device has a default limit
of 50 milion objects that can be written.

In my case, I have an 8 node Centera cluster, which 50 x 8 gives me
400 objects that can be written by default. While I did have 20TB of
space left, I tripped the object count limit which made the device
unwrittable. (Note: This did not affect document retreival)

Centera stores messages\docuements seperately in a "Blob" on the
device and are referenced through a "C-Clip". However there are
multiple objects are created based upon setup, ranging from 4 to 9.
So, an single email can create 1 C-Clip but up to 9 objects. So you
can see this object count can get quite high.

Resolutions:

1. Add more nodes to the Centera cluster, which would give you a fresh
50 million objects per node
2. Call EMC Support and have them up the object count limit. This is
something that must be done by support, there is no way for a customer
to do this from within the viewer with the admin user. Recommendation
was not to exceed 100 million limit per node. As you increase this,
performance could be affected.

Also a helpful way to cut down on object creation, as a going forward
only which will not affect already archived items is something called
"embedding" in which a Centera will embed the BLOBs written to the
Centera making the object count only be 2. One file = 2 objects
instead of 4 - 9 objects. EMC Support again would need to be involved
with this process.

[PerArdua]

Thanks for sharing this.

PA