in their entirety. Many users would prefer to lose some of their files entirely than all
of their files partially.</para>
</listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><emphasis role="bold">Small files.</emphasis> Small files do not benefit from striping
+ because they can be efficiently stored and accessed as a single OST object or even with
+ Data on MDT.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><emphasis role="bold">O_APPEND mode.</emphasis> When files are opened for append, they
+ instantiate all uninitialized components expressed in the layout. Typically, log files are
+ opened for append, and complex layouts can be inefficient.</para>
+ <note>
+ <para>The <literal>mdd.*.append_stripe_count</literal> and <literal>mdd.*.append_pool
+ </literal> options can be used to specify special default striping for files created
+ with <literal> O_APPEND</literal>.</para>
+ </note>
+ </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<section remap="h3">
<title><indexterm><primary>striping</primary><secondary>size</secondary></indexterm>
<para>To change the striping pattern for a sub-directory, create a directory with desired file
layout as described above. Sub-directories inherit the file layout of the root/parent
directory.</para>
+ <note>
+ <para>Special default striping can be used for files created with <literal>O_APPEND</literal>.
+ Files with uninitialized layouts opened with <literal>O_APPEND</literal> will
+ override a directory's default striping configuration and abide by the <literal>
+ mdd.*.append_pool</literal> and <literal>mdd.*.append_stripe_count</literal> options (if
+ they are specified).</para>
+ </note>
</section>
<section remap="h3">
<title><indexterm>
to any new child directories created in the root directory, unless striping settings have
been specified for the child directory.</para>
</note>
+ <note>
+ <para>Special default striping can be used for files created with <literal>O_APPEND</literal>.
+ Files with uninitialized layouts opened with <literal>O_APPEND</literal> will
+ override a file system's default striping configuration and abide by the <literal>
+ mdd.*.append_pool</literal> and <literal>mdd.*.append_stripe_count</literal> options (if
+ they are specified).</para>
+ </note>
</section>
<section remap="h3">
<title><indexterm>