X-Envelope-to: novell@suvm.bitnet
X-VMS-To: IN%"novell@suvm.bitnet,montilla@spider.actrix.gen.nz"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Date:         Mon, 31 Aug 1992 22:14:00 NZST
Reply-To:     Novell LAN Interest Group <NOVELL@SUVM.BITNET>
Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was BAIRD2@ONO.LINCOLN.AC.NZ
From:         J.Baird@ONO.LINCOLN.AC.NZ
Subject:      Re: NCP directory searches (was Some Questions)
X-To:         novell@suvm.BITNET, montilla@spider.actrix.gen.nz

>On one of my sites we have recently been getting the following error.
>
>8/27/92 19:33:24 pm  Severity = 5.
>1.1.89 Station 3 user GEORGE exceeded outstanding NCP directory search
>limit.
>
>What exactly does that mean? Can't seem to find anything in the manuals
>and the CNE I asked had no idea of what it means.

The following is from sys:system\readme.311

John
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   John Baird                           Internet:   J.Baird@ono.lincoln.ac.nz
   Senior Computer Consultant           CompuServe: 75360,35
   Centre for Computing & Biometrics    Phone:      (64) (3) 325-2811
   Lincoln University                   Fax:        (64) (3) 325-2944
   Canterbury
   New Zealand
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Maximum Outstanding NCP searches (page 290)

            DOS only allows for a maximum of 32K directory entries
            per volume.  This is also true for NetWare v2.x.  This
            is because a 16 bit file handle is used (signed 16 bits
            will give only 32K).  NetWare v3.x, however, offers a
            maximum of 2 million directory entries per volume.

            Therefore, it is necessary for the v3.x OS to maintain
            a table to map the DOS 16 bit requests to the NetWare
            v3.x 32-bit directory entries.  This table is used
            during DOS Find Firsts, Find Nexts, File Opens, and
            directory scans for file information.

            When any of these searches is initiated by a program at
            the workstation, an entry is placed into this table and
            is only released if the exact file name is specified,
            the workstation issues an End Of Job or the workstation
            finishes Find Nexts by reaching the end of the
            directory.  Each time a workstation initiates a Find
            First, an entry is placed into this table in NetWare.

            The default table size is 51 entries and can be
            increased using the "Maximum Outstanding NCP Searches"
            settable parameter.  Increasing this table uses server
            memory, since each entry is 24 bytes and there is one
            table per each connection.  This means with the table
            size set to 100 and with 250 workstations logged in,
            that the server will set aside 600K of memory for the
            NCP search tables.

            DOS applications which do not handle file searches
            cleanly can fill up this table and possibly result in a
            warning message broadcast from the server of "You
            exceeded your outstanding NCP directory search limit".
            If this occurs, information has been lost about one or
            more of the initiated (but not yet  completed) file
            searches.  The result to the application is usually
            that "File Not Found" may be returned by the server
            when in reality it does exist.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU