The maximum number of logical blocks, belonging to one file, that is allocated contiguously. The default is calculated as follows:

maxcontig = disk drive maximum transfer size / disk block size

If the disk drive's maximum transfer size cannot be determined, the default value for maxcontig is calculated from kernel parameters as follows:

If maxphys is less than ufs_maxmaxphys, which is 1 Mbyte, then maxcontig is set to maxphys. Otherwise, maxcontig is set to ufs_maxmaxphys.

You can set maxcontig to any positive integer value.

The actual value will be the lesser of what has been specified and what the hardware supports.

This parameter is obsolete as of the Solaris 10 release. The value is always set to 0, regardless of the input value.

Indicates the maximum number of contiguous logical blocks any single file can allocate from a cylinder group before it is forced to begin allocating blocks from another cylinder group. Typically this value is set to approximately one quarter of the total contiguous logical blocks in a cylinder group. The intent is to prevent any single file from using up all the blocks in a single cylinder group, thus degrading access times for all files subsequently allocated in that cylinder group.

The effect of this limit is to cause big files to do long seeks more frequently than if they were allowed to allocate all the blocks in a cylinder group before seeking elsewhere. For file systems with exclusively large files, this parameter should be set higher.

Specifies the minimum free space threshold, or the percentage of space held back from normal users. This value can be set to 0. However, up to a factor of three in throughput will be lost over the performance obtained at a 10% threshold. Note: If the value is raised above the current usage level, users will be unable to allocate files until enough files have been deleted to get under the higher threshold.

The file system can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk. The default is time.

Generally, you should optimize for time unless the file system is over 90% full.