On 26/09/14 08:51 AM, Muhammad Yousuf Khan wrote:
fsck checks the file system for errors. You can use tune2fs to adjust the timing but it is still important to have it run.hello all,i have several debian server and they are up 24/7. even i have a server which is up for 1.5 years. without restart.now i know when ever i restart this for the maintenance it will run the fsck to check the disk. which is fine and i have heard that it is very important to run on boot but what i want to know if fsck process is that critical do i need to run fsck manually. so that i can save my server from restart just for fsck.or i can cron job the task once every moth or two is this a good idea. Thanks, MYK
It should be run only against an unmounted file system. You obviously can't do this for your system partition but you can umount and fsck data partitions from a cron job. However you may prefer to do this manually so you can see the results as they happen.
If your system partition is kept small enough, it can be checked rapidly through a reboot.
Most file system errors are caused by improper machine shutdowns but they can also happen when processes mess up. For servers running 24/7 and on a UPS, the need to fsck is minimal. Still, it's better to be safe - especially with your data partitions.