Re: Reiserfs and disk spindown: separate /var partition?
Christian Jaeger wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I would like the hard drive to spin down (on a small server
> overnight, on a powerbook, etc), but want to use reiserfs. Reiserfs
> prevents noflushd from working since it bypasses the filesystem
> buffer for writing it's log. So what can I do?
>
> I'm imaging this: if I manage to use ext2 for just those directories
> into which something is written while the computer isn't used (system
> logfiles in /var, maybe something in /tmp), and reiserfs for the
> rest, there should be no writes bypassing the filesystem buffer and
> thus noflushd should work.
>
> Has anyone done this?
>
I have not done that, but, if you want to prevent a journaling file
system writing on a disk partition, you could have a look at SGI's xfs.
xfs can put the logfile on another physical disk (I don't think you can
put it into a file, but only raw partitions). So, get yourself two HD's
(a big one and a small one), install your system on the big one (using
xfs) and put the log-partitions on the small one. So the big one will
spin down while xfs can write anything into its log on the small one.
I don't know if this is what you want, but surely possible.
> I've some questions:
>
> - Are there no problems making /var (and /var/cache) and /tmp
> symlinks to another partition? (Would it decrease performance?)
> I think I read that kernel2.4 has a new feature for mounting stuff in
> a new way, but I don't remember exactly. Could it help against using
> symlinks?
>
I have /var as a seperate partition (especially for backups)
> - Getting it right for the boot process (should I make / reiser or
> ext2?): I assume I need to have /etc, /bin and /sbin on the root
> partition. What about /usr? Is there no problem mounting /var and
> /tmp later? What about /boot: if using lilo, /boot doesn't have to be
> in place while booting, does it?
>
I have everything xfs except /boot. /boot is still ext2, but mounted
readonly, so nothing can happen to it in case of a system crash (never
had one, so far, but who knows?) If I want to install new kernel, or
write to it, I can always do
mount -o remount,rw /boot
# do some things
mount -o remount,ro /boot
and done
> As a related question: besides disks, are there other pieces of the
> computer you can put to sleep on a server?
>
> Christian.
>
Well, if it is a pure server, you could leave everything out of it
except network card(s), HD's (and, if you need, SCSI card). Be soure to
use APM in the kernel and enable console blanking. Furthermore, you can
put a low-end graphics card in it, which will consume less power than,
say, a GeForce3 with 64 Megs of RAM ;-)
hth
joerg
--
Did you know that if you play a Windows 2000 cd backwards, you
will hear the voice of Satan?
That's nothing! If you play it forward, it'll install Windows 2000.
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