Re: Keep auto-periodic fsck's enabled on ext3 partitions?

[Glenn Oppegard <glenn@aktiom.net>]

Thanks for weighing in with your opinion, which was basically what I 
was planning to do anyways unless I heard otherwise. We don't run 
cutting-edge kernels, only upgrading for important bug or security 
patches. Combined with nightly backups of customer data, I think we'll 
be pretty safe disabling auto-fscks (knock on wood).

Thanks again,

Glenn Oppegard
Aktiom Networks LLC
http://www.aktiom.net
Linux Virtual Private Servers for Professionals

On Jan 6, 2005, at 4:48 AM, Wouter Verhelst wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 06, 2005 at 01:26:02AM -0700, Glenn Oppegard wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > We have production machines that have ext3 partitions bigger than
> > 100GB. On our last kernel upgrade, we were surprised to see the
> > machines do an fsck on all partitions even though they were unmounted
> > cleanly.
> >
> > Upon further investigation we found the tune2fs options that force
> > fscks of partitions after a certain number of mounts, or after a
> > certain period of time since the last fsck (6 months in our case). My
> > question is, is it detrimental to disable these auto-checks and not 
> > run
> > fsck periodically?
>
> If you always upgrade to the latest kernel when it's out, it's probably
> a good idea to leave it on; otherwise, and as long as you don't
> experience problems, I suggest to switch it off.
>
> > The man page for tune2fs says it's not wise...
>
> That is mostly relevant for systems that don't take regular backups. If
> you do (and for the sake of your customers, I hope that is the case),
> the extra precaution isn't really necessary, and probably a bad idea if
> the cost involved (in terms of downtime) is too high.
>
> The idea of the fsck is so that you would notice if anything out of the
> ordinary is going on in the kernel. If you are, however, running the
> same kernel all the time, either nothing will happen (and the fsck's 
> are
> superfluous), or your kernel is broken and you'll be fucked anyway (and
> the fsck's won't help you).
>
> --
>          EARTH
>      smog  |   bricks
>  AIR  --  mud  -- FIRE
> soda water |   tequila
>          WATER
>  -- with thanks to fortune
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-isp-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact 
> listmaster@lists.debian.org