From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 21 20:50:00 2010 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 509CD1065673 for ; Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:50:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from lo.gmane.org (lo.gmane.org [80.91.229.12]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A02F8FC16 for ; Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:49:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PKGrF-0006mj-T3 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:49:57 +0100 Received: from pool-173-79-85-36.washdc.fios.verizon.net ([173.79.85.36]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:49:57 +0100 Received: from nightrecon by pool-173-79-85-36.washdc.fios.verizon.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:49:57 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Michael Powell Followup-To: gmane.os.freebsd.questions Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:52:01 -0500 Lines: 38 Message-ID: References: <4CE94F25.3000609@tundraware.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: pool-173-79-85-36.washdc.fios.verizon.net Subject: Re: More On Samba And Softupdates 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: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:50:00 -0000 Tim Daneliuk wrote: > The other day I mentioned I had a problem with a Samba-shared drive that > was just installed blowing up. When I rebuilt it, I forgot to enable > softupdates but the drive seems to be working flawlessly. I understand > it is possible to do this after-the-fact with tunefs. Some questions: > > Do I have to unmount the drive to do it? > What benefit will I get if I turn on softupdates? > > This drive is being used as a backup drive for all the workstations on > this particular network, and "reliable" is much more important than " > slightly faster". As per man tunefs: "The tunefs utility cannot be run on an active file system. To change an active file system, it must be downgraded to read-only or unmounted." The benefit is not just speed, but better concurrent multi-user throughput. Operations which would block other I/O "finish" sooner so the next task can begin without waiting. I actually run mine with aio_load="YES" in loader.conf in conjunction with the following in smb.conf: aio read size = 16384 aio write size = 16384 aio write behind = true block size = 16384 use sendfile = Yes Minor performance tweaks aside, should you continue to see the error(s) described in the other mail I sincerely suspect softupdates is not the culprit. -Mike