You can create filesets based on conditions in your environment (for example, workflow patterns, security, or backup considerations, all the files used by a specific application, or files associated with a specific application or client). Filesets are used not only for managing the storage space used, but also for creating FlashCopy® images. Correctly defined filesets mean that you can take a FlashCopy image for all the files in a fileset together in a single operation, providing a consistent image for all of those files. The global namespace is partitioned into filesets that match the data-management model of the enterprise. Filesets can also be used as a criteria when placing individual files in global namespace.
Separate filesets by their primary allegiance of the operating system to facilitate file sharing. Separating filesets also facilitates file-based backup methods (for example, utilities, such as tar, and Windows® backup applications such as VERITAS NetBackup or IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager); full metadata attributes of Windows files can be backed up from a Windows backup client only and full metadata attributes of UNIX® files can be backed up from an UNIX backup client only.
There are no known limitations to the number of filesets that you can create; however, when the number of filesets is greater than one thousand, response time will increase when you issue fileset commands.
Parent topic: Filesets
Parent topic: How should I organize my global namespace?