NSM has the ability to create complex target paths designed to level large directory structures. NSM can add an \A\ directory to the target path. (ie. a home directory might look like server\volume:\A\ABrown) The first or last character of the user's CN is used to determine where a directory will be created.

Scenario:

A container with 30,000 user objects with their home directories are centerally located on the cluser1\data: volume.
Having 30,000 home directories in a single directory is very time consuming to enumerate so it has been decided to create a new directory for each letter of the alphabet and place the users folders into the corresponding directory based on the first initial of their username. NSM is able to handle this task not by changing the target paths, but by adding the leveling option to the Policy. The Leveling option will create each of the directories needed on an as needed basis.

Here are the basic steps for setting up leveling with NSM:

If a NSM Policy has already been created to manage the users of this container

1. The policy will need to be edited to add the desired leveling option.
2. Perform a Full Backfill with the "Enforce Policy Path" option enabled. This will move the current users folders to the proper directory.

If these users are not yet managed by NSM:

1. Create a Policy associated to the user container, with the target path set the volume where the users storage currently exists. Configure the policy to have leveling option enabled.
2. Perform a Consistancy Check to determine if users home directory attributes, flags, rights, and other options need to be fixed.
3. Verify and fix any improperly configured home directory attributes.
4. Perform a Backfill Full without the "Enforce Policy Paths" option to catalog the users into the NSM DBASE.
5. Perform a Backfill Full again this time with the "Enforce Policy Paths" option to move the users storage to the leveling directories.

Note: NSM will allow you to use both Leveling and Load Balancing options across multiple volumes.