Novell Storage Services

Novell Storage Services (NSS) is a file system used by the Novell NetWare network operating system. Support for NSS was introduced in 2004 to SUSE Linux via low-level network NCPFS protocol. It has some unique features that make it especially useful for setting up shared volumes on a file server in a local area network.

NSS is a 64-bit journaling file system with a balanced tree algorithm for the directory structure. Its published specifications (as of NetWare 6.5) are:


 * Maximum file size: 8 EB
 * Maximum partition size: 8 EB
 * Maximum device size (Physical or Logical): 8 EB
 * Maximum pool size: 8 EB
 * Maximum volume size: 8 EB
 * Maximum files per volume: 8 trillion
 * Maximum mounted volumes per server: unlimited if all are NSS
 * Maximum open files per server: no practical limit
 * Maximum directory tree depth: limited only by client
 * Maximum volumes per partition: unlimited
 * Maximum extended attributes: no limit on number of attributes.
 * Maximum data streams: no limit on number of data streams.
 * Unicode characters supported by default
 * Support for different name spaces: DOS, Microsoft Windows Long names (loaded by default), Unix, Apple Macintosh
 * Support for restoring deleted files (salvage)
 * Support for transparent compression
 * Support for encrypted volumes
 * Support for data shredding