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December 10th, 2025 20:31
Parallel chown over large file systems
I have a use-case where I need to migrate users from one uid/gid pair to another uid/gid pair. Their files can be sprayed around over very large directory trees spanning 4PB of storage. A standard "chown -R" would take quite a while to complete.
I've had a look at the Permissions Repair Job, however it does not look like it's able to alter the Unix ownership of directories/files.
Is there a hidden job that can perform this task... or is there a way of creating our own task within the Job Engine framework so that we can hopefully perform such a task in a quicker timeframe.
Essentially what I'm trying to avoid is the following:
find /mnt/5PB-fileSystem -uid 555 -print0 | xargs -0 chown 3333
find /mnt/5PB-fileSystem -gid 555 -print0 | xargs -0 chown :3333
Is there a way where the above approach could be avoided... as it could take months.



DELL-Josh Cr
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December 11th, 2025 13:35
kclark-paf
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December 11th, 2025 21:43
So... there is no way of changing the (Unix) ownership information via the OneFS appliance/cluster? Obviously mounting the filesystem and performing such an action in the "userspace" is not particularly feasible for large filesystems.
I have files for 500 users that need to be moved out of the UID 500-999 range. Is there any OneFS recommended approach for doing this that improves upon the 1970's "find|chown" methodology?
DELL-Josh Cr
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December 12th, 2025 14:05
Dell PowerScale OneFS: Authentication, Identity Management, and Authorization and Access Control Lists on Dell EMC PowerScale OneFS are the most complete documentation on permissions for OneFS.
Phil.Lam
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December 15th, 2025 19:53
permission repair job may help on top level
https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/products/storage/industry-market/h18442-wp-powerscale-onefs-permission-repair.pdf
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