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"P.V.Anthony" <pvantony@×××××××××××.sg> posted |
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45E510B6.8060104@×××××××××××.sg, excerpted below, on Wed, 28 Feb 2007 |
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13:18:46 +0800: |
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|
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> From the net, I gather that flash drives have a limited write/erase. Is |
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> there a way that this can be overcome? |
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> |
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> I was thinking of aufs. From what I understand, with aufs all the write |
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> is done only once when we shutdown the server. In this way everything is |
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> in the ram until a sync command is sent. This way the flash drives will |
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> last longer. Is this correct? |
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> |
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> I could also make a symbolic link for the /var and /tmp to the main |
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> drives. |
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|
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With modern thumb drives it shouldn't matter that much. They have a wear- |
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leveling write algorithm that spreads out the writes such that no one |
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cell gets worn out significantly before the others, and such drives often |
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last longer than regular drives now days. |
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|
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I'd go ahead and symlink /var and /tmp to your regular drives and make |
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sure swap (if any) is on the regular drives as well, but other than that, |
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it shouldn't matter much. Or... do what I did with my 8 gig of RAM, and |
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run /tmp on tmpfs, with /var/tmp symlinked to it as well. It definitely |
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speeds up merges when all the temporary work files are in RAM based |
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tmpfs! =8^) |
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|
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If you want extra safety, use the RAID-1 as you suggested, but make sure |
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the drives are two different manufacturers (if possible, make sure the |
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FLASH comes from two different suppliers as well), thus avoiding two |
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drives with such close characteristics that they die together. If you |
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want more safety than that, either expand it to a three-way RAID-1 or |
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swap out one of the two for a new one in say 9 months, using the one |
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that's swapped out for something else. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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-- |
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