Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:10:35 -0800 From: pete wright <nomadlogic@gmail.com> To: Randy Grafton <rgrafton@indatacorp.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Trying to build a speed demon Message-ID: <57d71000041111111047e9e138@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <41938B41.70802@indatacorp.com> References: <41938B41.70802@indatacorp.com>
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On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 08:54:41 -0700, Randy Grafton <rgrafton@indatacorp.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > I am trying to build a Samba file server that will serve 2TB to a single > dept. The dept will have a large variety of file types being saved to > the server; thousands of small (<32K) files to hundreds of medium to > large files (a few hundred KB in size to a few hundred MB in size). I am > using a 3ware 9500 series card in a PCX slot with 8 SATA drives > connected to it in a RAID 5 config. The proc is an Intel 3.2GHz with 4GB > of 400MHz DDR ECC Dual Channel RAM. The computer also has a single GB > Ethernet. The clients are all XP Pro. I have put 5.3 on it and > recompiled the kernel with only the items (drivers?) in it that are > physically on the system and being used. For example I've turned off > USB, Serial and Parallel ports in the motherboard's BIOS and have > removed them from my kernel. Do you gurus have anything else you could > recommend? I know that RAID5 will have a slowdown in write performance > as will using UFS (Journaled file system). Of course I'm not > specifically asking for Samba help but any advice for kernel/OS/Network > config or insight to fine tuning SAMBA on FreeBSD, so that this machine > can set new land speed records. I was also wondering about dual NIC for > load balancing as I'm hoping that the network is actually going to be > the bottleneck here. > first thing i would take a look at when doing file serving in this type of config is to look at disk i/o as your main bottleneck. RAID 5 will not give you the best throughput, also the 3Ware cards do not have much onboard cache (as do most "pro-sumer" IDE RAID cards). If you are really concerned about limiting all bottlenecks I would move away from IDE RAID and goto SCSI controllers with large amounts of onboard cache. not only will you gain the added benifits of quicker disk I/O with SCSI RAID but I think you find a much more reliable system in the long run. HTH -p -- ~~o0OO0o~~ Pete Wright www.nycbug.org NYC's *BSD User Group
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