From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 30 14:18:17 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 ACD431065693 for ; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:18:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from seklecki@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us) Received: from mx04.pub.collaborativefusion.com (mx04.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.72.84]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E9738FC0A for ; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:18:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [127.0.0.1] ([206.210.89.202]) by mx04.pub.collaborativefusion.com (StrongMail Enterprise 4.1.1.4(4.1.1.4-47689)); Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:41:33 -0400 X-VirtualServerGroup: Default X-MailingID: 00000::00000::00000::00000::::3337 X-SMHeaderMap: mid="X-MailingID" X-Destination-ID: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-SMFBL: ZnJlZWJzZC1xdWVzdGlvbnNAZnJlZWJzZC5vcmc= DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us; s=noc_cfi_pgh_pa_us_key_dkim; l=1025; t=1285854093; i=@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us; h=Message-ID:Date:From: Reply-To:Organization:User-Agent:MIME-Version:To:CC:Subject: References:In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; bh=gPmkwYbl4hTixIegLo9NEIc8YPY=; b=fs0JQ5TZ2si1gGagdJnYwXEcj9z5/ /0bBwpG4qkUXzf1LRYCICVTvsB1AXAXaKmz8OJgR7bqZNRCtum3Vf5ZSIl+v9K+k hnDGMPg+jRj3w4qZqky2GFplqyMPqpqFxbi Message-ID: <4CA4988E.2000200@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us> Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:02:54 -0400 From: "Brian A. Seklecki (CFI NOC)" Organization: Collaborative Fusion, Inc. (DRP NOC) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.9) Gecko/20100915 Thunderbird/3.1.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kaya Saman References: <4CA4461F.6030508@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <4CA4461F.6030508@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Mother board compatibility and CF card usage as main storage device for small DNS server X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: bseklecki@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:18:17 -0000 On 9/30/2010 4:11 AM, Kaya Saman wrote: > I mean for a DNS server (all be it a small one) is it wise to use > compact flash as storage?? For our GSLB DNS Slaves, we boot embedded/low power (or even VMs these days) systems with CF images off of flash, keep a shadow copy of /etc around, and program all file systems with R/W activity (/var/chroot/named/cache, where all zone files are fetched from Master NS) on MFS partitions, eliminating almost all write operations to the CF card. No swap, and RD / (/var, etc.) and MFS /usr extracted from a tarball via modified rc(8). /shadow is mounted noatime. Minimal writes to flash. The systems boot in about 30 seconds. We actually run NetBSD, but we've done similar models on FreeBSD. No CF card failures reported in five (5) years. We use Transcend Industrial series. Where it gets risky is if you just plain install a live functional FreeBSD on CF. A million inodes for /usr/src and CF is about as fast as an ESDI hard drive in an IBM XT. ~BAS