From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 17 20:40:50 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8572916A4CE for ; Mon, 17 May 2004 20:40:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ironman.tuckerlabs.com (ironman.tuckerlabs.com [64.113.4.100]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17D9043D60 for ; Mon, 17 May 2004 20:40:49 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wtucker@donobi.com) Received: from ironman.tuckerlabs.com (localhost.tuckerlabs.com [127.0.0.1]) i4I3emDi019826 for ; Tue, 18 May 2004 03:40:48 GMT (envelope-from wtucker@donobi.com) Received: (from wtucker@localhost) by ironman.tuckerlabs.com (8.12.9p2/8.12.9/Submit) id i4I3ekTb019825 for freebsd-isp@freebsd.org; Mon, 17 May 2004 20:40:46 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wtucker@donobi.com) X-Authentication-Warning: ironman.tuckerlabs.com: wtucker set sender to wtucker@donobi.com using -f Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 20:40:46 -0700 From: Wayne Tucker To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20040518034046.GI14871@ironman.tuckerlabs.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Subject: Re: Server with largish disks X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 03:40:50 -0000 On Mon, May 17, 2004 at 10:37:35AM -0700, Keith Woodworth wrote: > One I'd like has 4 x 9gig and 4 x 18gig drives, 2 x 733mhz cpus. > > Only have about 2500+ active mail accounts on this machine but it is > running low on space and we have lots of those accounts being access'd via > Openwebmail. > > Mail spool is /var/mail > > Question is what would be a good way to partition the drives in the above > configuration? > > I would like acutally to use 3 x 18 gig drives as /var with the 4th > as the hotspare and the rest of the file systems (/ /usr) on 3 x 9gig > with the 4th as hotspace. That would work, although I would recommend altering your scheme slightly: use the 18GB array (3x9GB + hot spare, assuming you're doing RAID 5) for /, swap, /tmp, /var, /usr, and then dedicate the 36GB array to /var/mail. This will allow those spindles to occupy themselves with mail and not have to worry about things like log files. (Keep in mind that some software, especially IMAP and webmail apps, also store mail under the user's $HOME, so that may affect your disk layout as well.) > Is this a workable way to do it? Also since this has dual cpu's, how is > the SMP support in FBSD 5.2? ie: how stable is it? > > Will the OS take advantage of having the two cpu's? Or would that depend > on the software (Postfix, Qpopper (though that maybe replaced) ) to use > the xtra cpu? I haven't used 5.2 in production yet, but I have used it on a couple of test systems (and my workstation) without problems. The programs you mentioned all use multiple processes (and/or threads), so the operating system (even 4.x) should be able to distribute them between the CPU's without any trouble. Best wishes, Wayne -- Wayne A. Tucker Sr. Network Engineer, Aspiring Guru wtucker@donobi.com DONOBI, Inc. +1-360-473-1169 "The Internet Solutions Company"