In the message dated: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:09:49 EDT, The pithy ruminations from Dan Pritts on <[BackupPC-users] WARNING regarding using solaris with UFS as your backuppc ser ver> were: => Hi all - => => I've been running solaris 10 as my backuppc server for quite a while => now.
I ran BackupPC, using Solaris 10 (e250, 6x73GB) and UFS for about 1 1/2 years. [I don't have that system now, so I can't give you more specifics about my configuration.] I had about 250GB of real files (over 400GB in the virtual pool). I never had any disk corruption. => => It mostly has worked fine. => => However, recently, I have frequently been bitten by solaris UFS filesystem => bugs; the filesystem becomes corrupted for no good reason. Hmmm.... => => I'd blame my hardware if i hadn't had similar experiences several years => ago (on solaris) with an application that was written to use flat files => as a "database". I've administered Solaris for over 12 years, and have never seen the kind of filesystem corruption that you describe--aside from hardware probelms. I'd seriously examine your hardware (not just the disk subsystem, but memory as well). => => the filesystem just didn't like lots and lots of small files and the Huh? UFS is fine with "lots and lots" of small files--and performs much better than ext[23]fs under similar circumstances. The filesystem workload you're describing is typical of some mail servers, and many NNTP servers--both common applications for Solaris. => system panicked every few weeks, and fsck took FOREVER. I'm guessing Well, yes, fsck will take a very long time. Do you have journalling turned on as a filesystem mount option? What is the average size of your files? Have you tuned the file system (block size, number of inodes, etc.) for that type of file? => it doesn't like lots of hard links, either, and my fscks have taken => over two days (admittedly, i am using slow disks). Have you considered using ZFS, since you're running Solaris 10? => => I'm converting my system to run on linux as i write this. I'd run extensive, long term (multi-day) tests of memory/cpu/disk systems first, to rule out any hardware issues. => => Anyway, just a word of warning. I wouldn't be surprised if nobody => else had ever run this on Solaris, and I'd like nobody else to => run into the problems I have. => => ps - converting to use ZFS would likely fix this set of problems, but => i'm nervous that it would introduce more, ZFS is just not mature yet. Um, as far as I know, ZFS has been in general release for over a year already, (and in limited release since late 2004). Mark => => => danno => -- => Dan Pritts, System Administrator => Internet2 => office: +1-734-352-4953 | mobile: +1-734-834-7224 => ----- Mark Bergman Biker, Rock Climber, Unix mechanic, IATSE #1 Stagehand http://wwwkeys.pgp.net:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=bergman%40merctech.com I want a newsgroup with a infinite S/N ratio! Now taking CFV on: rec.motorcycles.stagehands.pet-bird-owners.pinballers.unix-supporters 15+ So Far--Want to join? Check out: http://www.panix.com/~bergman ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
