From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 20 14:32:32 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F96F106564A for ; Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:32:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F14C18FC14 for ; Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:32:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from vanquish.ws.pitbpa0.priv.collaborativefusion.com (pr40.pitbpa0.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 0484AEBC0C; Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:32:30 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:32:47 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: Chris St Denis Message-Id: <20080820103247.96c513ce.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <48AB300E.40509@smartt.com> References: <48AB300E.40509@smartt.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.5.0 (GTK+ 2.12.11; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: Recommended newfs settings for 600GB mail (maildir) store? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:32:32 -0000 In response to Chris St Denis : > I recently created a new mail server with a 600GB raid5 partition to > store maildirs. When I created it, I used a newfs -i 4096 but when I had > recent hardware problems the background FSCK took a very long time, and > I'm concerned that the -i 4096 may have made that a lot worse. > > So I ask. What newfs settings do you recommend for a 600GB partition > dedicated to maildirs? Our Maildir partition was created with the default -i setting (which comes out to -i 8192 on this partition) and we have ~50% of the space filled and ~25% of the inodes used. It's not the biggest Maildir store on the planet, but I suspect it's a pretty decent representation of mail usage. Based on that, I don't think you need a lower value for -i, and you might even be safe to bump it up higher than the default, perhaps to 6 * frag size. If this improves fsck performance, as Oliver suggested, then it may be worth it. However, fsck time on 600G is going to be long no matter what you do. Just be glad we have background fsck. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com