thank you for this useful information.
   
  also, i don not know my kb from my KB and knew i would get caught out on this 
eventually.

Davina Treiber <Davina.Treiber AT PEEVRO.CO DOT UK> wrote:
  mark wragge wrote:
> I am going to configure a new Solaris 8 SAN storage node into an existing 
> Windows environment. The block size on the WIndows Networker server is 
> currently default of 64kb. When i mount a volume Netowkrer reports the block 
> size as 64kb
> 
> I expect that the default block size on the Solaris 8 server will be 128kb. 
> Is this correct?

This depends on the device type. Different tape device types use
different block sizes. Incidentally the block size will certainly not be
64 kb or 128 kb, although it might be 64 KB or 128 KB. Tape block sizes
are measured in kilobytes not kilobits.

> 
> What is the recommendation for block size in a mixed OS environment? Should i 
> reconfigure the windows server as 128kb or should the Solaris block size be 
> reduced to 64kb? OR, should i leave both servers using differing block sizes?

The recommendation is that they should all be the same. You can
sometimes have a situation where a Unix node labels a tape and the
Windows node cannot read it. Reducing the Unix node's block size is the
easiest solution but you may (I say "may" not "will") get better
performance by increasing the Windows node's block size - which may
necessitate changing registry settings for scatter/gather buffers for
the HBA driver. In some combinations of Windows version and HBA driver
this is not even possible.

> 
> If i change the block size on the windows server how will this affect the use 
> of my existing volumes which are all currently written to using the 64k size.

They will still be readable.

> 
> Do I need to be worried about the block size settings at all?

Yes you do, when you mix Windows with other platforms, however this does
not necessarily mean you need to change anything. For example if your
tape device type uses 64KB on all platforms there will not be an issue.

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and 
type "signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to 
networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this 
list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER


 Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com 

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and 
type "signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to 
networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this 
list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER