[gentoo-user] Re: dual scsi configuration?

[James]

Zac Slade <krakrjak <at> volumehost.net> writes:


> Well what's the workload?  Random reads, sequential reads, random writes,
> sequential writes?  All these are important to selecting the best method of
> getting optimal I/O.  There is no one perfect filesystem/raid level for
> everything.

Hello Zac,

A lightly loaded web server should be able to use reiser3. I think the
intial setup will be reiser 3 as all of my experiences with Reiser3 have
been very positive.

No LMV or EVMS

> Since you are using only a 400Mhz processor I think that reiser3 may be out of
> the question.  It uses a lot of CPU and gets great performace, but if the
> processor can't keep up then reiser loses a lot of performance.

Since the web server will be lightly loaded (maybe 100 hits per day with
simple html files, the 400 MHz cpu should be fine. It it starts to
get more action than the machine can handle, I'll migrate it up 
to another machine with more resources....

> Also any Device Mapper layers will slow you down a bit.  I user LVM and love
> it, but if I really need maximum raw throughput I'd look to hw RAID or sw
> based RAID (if my system is up to that).

The Adaptech  dual channel controller has a drive on each channel.
It's an AHA-3940/UWUWD ATC-7882U . How do I find if this
controller does hardware raid and if so, how to set it up under Gentoo?
If not, software raid sounds interesting to learn about. If the 
machine installation turns out poorly, I'll just try it again.
It's not controlling critical data, just a learning/fun type of 
project  (I.E. it's a stressless adventure, OK?)


> For filesystems it just depends on your needs.  If you want high sequential
> reads/writes then JFS and XFS are particularly good.  If you need an all
> around performer, random reads/writes with good sequential throughput then
> ext3 and reiser (see above note on reiser).  Reiser is also the best at
> purely random access especially with large directories (1,000s of little
> files).

Mostly 'reads' I would suppect from several simple and small web-sties
on a machine this is only a web server?

> To be honest if you just go look at the filesystem howtos and filesystem
> comparisons (use google luke) you won't go wrong.  They are all up to the
> task as long as you know a little bit about what your workload is going to
> look like.

Reiser3 is my choice. No LVM or EVMS for now. SO I need a howto 
on setting up raid (hardware if this aforementioned scsi card can
to that with Gentoo) ortherwise software raid.

Maybe (2) equal size swap partiontions on each drive? Identical partitions
on these identical drives? 


Nothing stressful here, just a chance to set up a slightly diferent
gentoo web server, for my home based projects.

As the Aussie's say (No worries!)

James


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