From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 30 14:35:20 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75C24106564A for ; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:35:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kayasaman@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wy0-f172.google.com (mail-wy0-f172.google.com [74.125.82.172]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 069B78FC08 for ; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:35:19 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyi11 with SMTP id 11so3054563wyi.17 for ; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:35:19 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=RYWAjcskaOwXRMj0Ud6KbxFXeNssxXGTFv+F1LW9aUc=; b=RBR1YikzT+aXcgdil4S2n/GD4da9CFPNg+f0W6LqvKIwzRI610SWcZD3Ax/534EStC dwm+wPmqTaWG2kAHKk0B36uuotjUmvlOXXLH/5AIaqpTpYBoxiG/jRcaO91n7I5z4g88 yujN2Um4nuziV3F32Nk9l3DyDIUWsjB4qmvYY= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=AJOIgD54gy9TMORHdj2EPokqE9YY1+Vw6mAnTfibCgCK9vhvY8sGGvCuZ0nHQVElBV qlPeRqSMtqbHM48wMyh5cNxKz1Y92oagdPzbJxBxfdmA1qVK4kWssDs2GwLGRcO8ejP6 AZx8tNwh25FssPSC8APJQiAcM4bW6jy2N0lCA= Received: by 10.227.208.73 with SMTP id gb9mr3452263wbb.13.1285857317541; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:35:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.0.52] ([85.105.64.2]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id h29sm1835809wbc.21.2010.09.30.07.35.14 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:35:15 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4CA49F10.90603@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:30:40 +0300 From: Kaya Saman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.12) Gecko/20100914 Thunderbird/3.0.8 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: bseklecki@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us References: <4CA4461F.6030508@gmail.com> <4CA4988E.2000200@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us> In-Reply-To: <4CA4988E.2000200@noc.cfi.pgh.pa.us> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Mother board compatibility and CF card usage as main storage device for small DNS server X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:35:20 -0000 Thanks very much Brian: On 30/09/2010 17:02, Brian A. Seklecki (CFI NOC) wrote: > On 9/30/2010 4:11 AM, Kaya Saman wrote: >> I mean for a DNS server (all be it a small one) is it wise to use >> compact flash as storage?? > > > For our GSLB DNS Slaves, we boot embedded/low power (or even VMs these > days) systems with CF images off of flash, keep a shadow copy of /etc > around, and program all file systems with R/W activity > (/var/chroot/named/cache, where all zone files are fetched from Master > NS) on MFS partitions, eliminating almost all write operations to the > CF card. > > No swap, and RD / (/var, etc.) and MFS /usr extracted from a tarball > via modified rc(8). /shadow is mounted noatime. Are you saying that you custom compiled the kernel here?? I'm not that advanced with FreeBSD yet as I've only been using it for a few months even though I have other UNIX based experience. > > [...] > > Where it gets risky is if you just plain install a live functional > FreeBSD on CF. A million inodes for /usr/src and CF is about as fast > as an ESDI hard drive in an IBM XT. I was planning to go Standard Minimal Install then build Bind9 from ports and of course use SSH as login system and perhaps hack out the Serial port to give me some SPARC/POWER/Cisco style RS232c login. From what you mention it sounds like a bad idea as the system disk will have many R/W's going through it it seems as /tmp and Swap get written to all the time. I mean this would have been a cheaper alternative to buying an SSD drive or SAS 2.5" drive but now I'm a bit worried..... > > ~BAS > > Regards, Kaya