[Info-vax] Initializing a new disk, need some pointers for options

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <8974253a-ffd1-4aa0-a44f-f415e1b15a3f at googlegroups.com>,
cgilley2640 at gmail.com writes: 

> So I've been supporting a VMS machine for almost 20 years now.  As all
> things VMS, it just sits in the corner and runs.  Today, the application
> disk started throwing DIRALLOC errors.  I ran into this like 10+ years
> ago, I understand why it happens. 
> 
> The VAX now runs in a VM, so I just need to create another disk
> container initialize it and go.  But, there are some options I'm curious
> about.  The documentation is accurate, it just doesn't fill in a lot of
> why and the nuances. 
> 
> The existing application shoves all of it's files in the root folder. 

Bad,...

> The application has accumulated 150K files. 

...especially if there are that many.

> /Headers
>   According to the doc, I should pick something along the lines of the
> # of files on the disk.  So, 150K?

No reason not to have four or five times that number.  You definitely 
don't want the HEADERFULL message.  These days, the disk should be more 
than large enough so that you don't have to worry about the size of 
INDEXF.SYS.

> /Index = location
>   Does it really matter?

Probably not much these days; go with the default unless you have a 
reason not to.

> /Maximum_Files= nnn
>   This is pretty obvious.

Check the default if this is not specified.

> Guidance?

Check all the INITIALIZE options and see how they relate.

Why not let /Maximum_Files be the VMS limit?