8. A system comprising: one or more processors of a node coupled to a network link, the node including persistent storage devices organized as a plurality of volumes having a hierarchical file system; a plurality of storage repositories organized as an indexing arrangement and coupled to the one or more processors, the storage repositories including (i) a data repository configured to store packets intercepted from the network link, (ii) a first metadata repository configured to store flow records having hash values and flow metadata, and (iii) a second metadata repository configured to store entries having the hash values along with paths and offsets to the packets stored in the data repository; and a memory coupled to the one or more processors and configured to store one or more processes of an operating system, the one or more processes executable by the one or more processors to utilize the indexing arrangement to concurrently search and retrieve one or more of the flow records from the first metadata repository stored as a first file of a first volume of the hierarchical file system while copying one or more of the packets to the data repository for storage on a second file of a second volume of the hierarchical file system to realize a substantially high sustained packet transfer rate of the network link.
19. The system of claim 8 wherein the substantially high sustained packet transfer rate is approximately 10 Gb/sec full duplex.