A disk used by the operating system for performing I/O operations is divided into contiguous areas called partitions. A partition can be used as a file system area provided by the operating system or as a HiRDB file system area. Figure 6-1 shows the relationship between HiRDB file system areas and file system areas provided by the OS.

Figure 6-1 Relationship between HiRDB file system areas and file system areas provided by the OS

The HiRDB file system areas are created in Windows partitions.

(a) Normal Windows files

Create a HiRDB file system area by creating files in a normal partition provided by Windows. To do this, use the pdfmkfs command.

(b) Direct disk access (raw I/O)

You can use not only normal partitions but also Windows' direct disk access (raw I/O) to create HiRDB file system areas. The latter uses the raw I/O facility. The raw I/O facility lets you access partitions and logical drives in the same manner as files. However, some of the HiRDB file system areas cannot be created with raw I/O. To use the raw I/O facility, you need to provide unformatted partitions. In Windows, you can create partitions from the window displayed by choosing Computer Management and then Disk Management.

Note

• Do not use a partition that consists of multiple partitions (such as a volume set or a stripe set).
• You need to assign a drive letter to each partition.
• The raw I/O facility supports only fixed disks with a sector length of 512 bytes as drives.

We recommend that you create a separate HiRDB file system area for each of the items listed and described in Table 6-2. For details about how to design the various HiRDB file system areas, see the HiRDB Version 8 Installation and Design Guide.

Table 6-2 Type of HiRDB file system area

Type of HiRDB file system area	Option1	Description
RDAREA	DB	HiRDB file system area in which RDAREAs (other than list RDAREAs) are stored. This area is always needed.
Shared RDAREA	SDB	HiRDB file system area in which shared RDAREAs are created. This area is needed if you use shared RDAREAs.
System file	SYS	HiRDB file system area in which system log files, synchronization point dump files, and status files are stored. This area is always needed.
Audit trail file		HiRDB file system area in which audit trail files are created. This area is needed to use the security audit facility.
Work table file2	WORK	HiRDB file system area in which work table files are stored. This area is always needed.
Utility	UTL	HiRDB file system area in which files used by utilities (backup files, unload data files, unload log files, index information files, or differential backup management files) are created.
	NUTL	HiRDB file system area in which files used by utilities are created. It differs from UTL in that the Windows cache is not used regardless of the value specified for the pd_ntfs_cache_disable operand.
List RDAREA3	WORK	HiRDB file system area in which list RDAREAs are stored. This area is needed to perform narrowed searches.

¹ The value of the -k option specification that is specified when you create a HiRDB file system area with the pdfmkfs command.

² Raw I/O cannot be used on a HiRDB file system area for work table files. Create this area in a normal partition.

³ You cannot create a list RDAREA in a HiRDB file system area that uses raw I/O.

The pdfmkfs command is used to create a HiRDB file system area.

Reference note

If you use either of the following environment setup support tools the first time you install HiRDB, a HiRDB file system area will be created based on the information you enter:

• Simple setup tool
• Batch file (SPsetup.bat)

For details about designing and creating HiRDB file system areas, see the HiRDB Version 8 Installation and Design Guide.

Table 6-3 shows the maximum size of a HiRDB file system area.

Table 6-3 Maximum size of a HiRDB file system area

Condition	Maximum size of HiRDB file system area
pd_large_file_use=N specified (default)	2,047 MB
pd_large_file_use=Y specified	1,048,575 MB