SUMMARY: Solaris 2.5 newfs for a News Server disk

From: erin o'neill (erin@factory.net)
Date: Fri Sep 20 1996 - 11:37:54 CDT


I said:

>HELP!!
>I'm installing inn on a Sparc20. I purchased a 9GB hard drive & now I need
>to make a new file system on it. I've checked the Archives. But what
>is the best config for the newfs command for a News Server disk??

Thanks to the following ppl:
Joe St Sauver <joe@decoy.uoregon.edu>
Phil Poole <poole@ncifcrf.gov>
Dan Pritts <danno@us.itd.umich.edu>
Martin Espinoza <drink@sei.com>
Rudy Yu <lcyu@pacbell.net>
Tim Evans <tkevans@eplrx7.es.dupont.com>
Paulo Licio de Geus <paulo@dcc.unicamp.br>
Kjetil Torgrim Homme <kjetilho@ifi.uio.no>

Most ppl said since I didn't have Online DiskSuite that I was restricted to a
less than 2 GB partition. Someone thought I needed help formatting the disk.
But what I was really looking for was a good newfs command for a news partition
and I got that from Paulo (thanks!!). I also got 2 messages
(Phil Poole & Kjetil Torgrim Homme) about how they partitioned their disks for
news which I found very helpful.

Paulo's message:

On Sep 18, 1:50pm, Paulo Licio de Geus wrote:
> Subject: Solaris 2.5 newfs for a News Server disk
> If you mean the number of i-nodes in the fs (or how many KB per
> i-node), I once made a filesystem with 4 KB/i-node and later had to
> get it down to 2.5 KB. It's too many small files, so there's no way
> to save i-node space...
>
> newfs -i 2560 -m 2 /dev/rdsk/*
>
> You can be more conservative and stick to the 2048 default value for
> -i (just suppress this switch and its argument). You can save a lot
> in the minfree option (-m), since the files are usually very small and
> you won't incur in any file fragmentation by lowering the minfree
> parameter. In the above example I used 2% instead of the default 10%,
> and could as well go to 1% or even less (if the switch allows values
> smaller than 1%, haven't checked the man pages I'm afraid...)
>
> --
> Paulo Licio de Geus Internet: paulo@dcc.unicamp.br
> Instituto de Computacao - UNICAMP voice: +55 19
239-3115/8695/8442
> Av. Albert Einstein, 1251 fax: +55 19 239-7470
> caixa postal: 6176 http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~paulo
> 13083-970 Campinas SP Brazil
>-- End of excerpt from Paulo Licio de Geus

And then Phil & Kjetil's messages:
On Sep 17, 9:25pm, Phil Poole wrote:
> Subject: Re: Solaris 2.5 newfs for a News Server disk
> >
> > HELP!!
> > I'm installing inn on a Sparc20. I purchased a 9GB hard drive & now I need
> > to make a new file system on it. I've checked the Archives. But what
> > is the best config for the newfs command for a News Server disk??
> >
> > any help will be appreciated!
> >
> > erin
>
>
> Hello Erin,
>
> I have just recently done the same thing myself.
>
> Here is what I would recommend for you.
> We are doing a set-up similar but our emphasis are on
> the comp and sci newsgroups vs. alt or rec.
>
> 1) One partition of approx. 1 GB for the overview database
> 2) One partition of approx. 1 GB for the SCI news groups
> 3) One partition of approx. 2 GB for the Comp news groups
> 4) One partition of approx. 3 GB for the Alt news groups
> 5) One partition of approx. 2 GB for the Rec news groups
>
> of course approx 50 Meg of /usr/local is the INN software...and
> our /var partition is large enough to contain all of the log
> files generated by INN (log size varies with the amount of traffic)
>
> We don't get a full newsfeed. Thus we are lacking most all of
> alt*, rec*, and we receive absolutely no biz* news hierarchy.
>
> We are able to keep articles for about 3-4 weeks. This varies
> during the summer when less students have access to the 'net
> in general.
>
> You will probably want to set the min-free to around 2.5% with the
> newfs. newfs -o mkfs -m 3
>
> My syntax might be off...I don't have my notes handy.
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Let me know how it turns out.
>
> later
>
> --
> Phil Poole | SUN Unix Administrator
> poole@ncifcrf.gov | Frederick Biomedical SuperComputing Center
> (301) 846-5721 | Frederick MD, 21702
>-- End of excerpt from Phil Poole

On Sep 19, 3:47am, Kjetil Torgrim Homme wrote:
> Subject: Re: Solaris 2.5 newfs for a News Server disk
> Read the INN FAQ posted to news.software.nntp, it's full of hints.
>
> Preferably, you should have several spindles (2x4 is better than 1x9):
> 1 disc for lib (~1gig) (IMPORTANT for I/O)
> 1 disc for overview (~1.5gig) (NICE for I/O)
> n discs for spool
>
> Average size of an article is 3600 bytes just now at our site. newfs
> assumes 2048 by default, it's probably safest to let that be to cut
> some slack.
>
>
> Kjetil T.
>-- End of excerpt from Kjetil Torgrim Homme

-- 
erin o'neill          -------     erin@factory.net
Systems Administrator ------- voice:(415) 312-7885
        IDG/Interactive Services Group
      --------  www.factory.net --------



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