Most file-services utilization profiles for end-user home directories are likely to include the following workload characteristics:
- User directories are mapped automatically at the time of user login, typically via either login script or persistent user-profile connection.
- Most users store traditional Office files (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and so on), images, and streaming media on their home directories, rather than high transaction, high volume data sets.
- Per-user connections in most scenarios are highly intermittent, resulting in short bursts of per-user data transfers on demand, followed by long pauses with no activity between the user and the directory-storage server.
- Enterprise requirements and user expectations for home-directory throughput and performance are subject to different standards than enterprise file services requirements.
- Home-directory data is often retained for very long periods of time without being accessed or modified.
- Home-directory snapshots and backups are often managed under separate capture and retention policies than enterprise file-services data.
The specific performance requirements for hosting end-user home directories on a consolidated storage platform will vary by organization—or even by department within an organization—but user directory utilization patterns will broadly fit the above description, with variations in degree rather than in substance.