From owner-freebsd-questions Wed May 27 09:36:40 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA04942 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Wed, 27 May 1998 09:36:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dove.peace.com.my (peace.com.my [202.184.153.15]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA04918 for ; Wed, 27 May 1998 09:36:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from panda@peace.com.my) Received: from lovebox (love.com.my [202.184.153.17]) by dove.peace.com.my (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id AAA02403; Thu, 28 May 1998 00:17:22 +0800 (SGT) Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 00:17:22 +0800 (SGT) Message-Id: <3.0.32.19980528003928.0094b210@peace.com.my> X-Sender: panda@peace.com.my X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) To: Greg Lehey From: chas Subject: Re: adding 25GB as single partition ok ? Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG >>> You can't easily back up /var, at least using dump. >> >> I've actually picked up some good input from some Digital >> Unix folks : Ooops, in retrospect.. that sounded really rude of me. What I meant was "I've picked up more good input (in addition to that provided by FBSD people) and it came from DU folk". Apologies for any misinterpretation. >>> 2. The root partition looks a little small, I'd be more comfortable with >>> 150-200mb. > >That might be right for Digital UNIX. It's far too large for >FreeBSD. 40 or 50 MB is more typical. True. >>> 5. If the 25GB raid set is to be used only for the mail spool, why >>> not just mount it as /var/spool/mail or to be more flexable, >>> /var/spool? > >Why not call the file system /var? Well, I'm using Cyrus IMAPd (which I finally managed to get working in harmony with Qmail 10 minutes ago after 24 hours of grief) so all mail is guaranteed to go to /var/spool/imap/ Seems nicer to keep mail/data on there and the OS/logfiles/config on the HD. But this is all matter of choice I guess - "horses for courses" as they say. >>> Mail, as opposed to news, generates one spool file per user. Depending >>> on the number of users, you may want to consider adjusting the inode >>> or extent ratio that you use. >>> >>> I don't remember the max size for a UFS partiion, but if you are using >>> UFS -- don't forget to set the inodes per kb down to one or two. This >>> will reduce the avialable space bya small amount but will let you handle >>> more small files. > >If this is primarily mail, you won't need to do this. happy to hear. :) > If it's >primarily news, it's a good idea. Remember that the only way to >increase the number of inodes (files) is to re-newfs the file system, >which involves a backup and restore of the complete Raid set. Even a >fast tape drive (2 MB/s) would take about 8 hours to back up the data, >and possibly about 12 hours to restore; count 24 hours uninterrupted >work to rebuild it. Thank you for the figures there. This was precisely why I sought as much input as possible now that the configuration is flexible. The thought of such backup/restore's wasn't too appealing when the server is live. Cheers, chas To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message