A quick and easy performance improvement

[Julian Field]

Richard Lynch wrote:
> Julian Field wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> Richard Lynch wrote:
>>
>>> uxbod wrote:
>>>
>>>> Why not hold the bayes on a RAM partition, and have a cronjob that 
>>>> periodically backs it up throughout the day so that changes are not 
>>>> lost if the server crashes ?
>>>>  
>>>>
>>>
>>> That would definitely improve things.  Seek time in RAM is zero!
>>>
>>> While monitoring disk I/Os (iostat 1) I was surprised at the high 
>>> number for bayes.  I didn't expect to see it so high.  One my systems 
>>> it was actually higher than the I/O for the mail queues.
>>
>>
>> That's very interesting.
>>
>> Most people these days just use 1 big partition for / and nothing 
>> else. So it won't be available to them. So why is this an improvement 
>> when /var/spool and /.spamassassin are on the same partition? I can 
>> see why, if they are on different partitions, though you're still 
>> relying on the mapping of sector number --> physical hard disk 
>> location. But if / and /var/spool are on the same partition anyway, 
>> why would it run any faster?
>>
> I can't see why it would either.  If you're using one large partition 
> changing the directory structure wouldn't be worth anything as far as 
> performance goes.  In my case they are on different partitions.
> 
>> I am sorely tempted to say that you have merely cancelled out the 
>> speed slowdown caused by splitting / and /var onto different 
>> partitions. If they are both on the same partition anyway, and are 
>> being written to a lot, they will end up very close to each other by 
>> virtue of how the filesystem is likely to work.
>>
>> I think that splitting / and /var slowed your system down. You have 
>> just cancelled that out.
>>
>> Thoughts?
> 
> I think you're right.  Is it uncommon to have / and /var on different 
> partitions?   The sysadmins here argue for separate partitions because 
> it lessons the likely hood of the rootfs filling up.  They say that it 
> can hose your system to the point that you can't even logon to fix it.  
> So, we split / and /var (and others).  I think all of our unix systems 
> are that way.  Is this a bad practice?

I have found in the past that splitting the installation into many 
different partitions just causes more problems than it solves. Putting 
/var separate on Solaris is a classic example. People say "when your 
logs get big it won't fill /" which is true enough. But disks are huge 
and cheap these days. Why not just do it properly and roll your logs 
properly so they never occupy a lot of space? If you have them separate, 
then as you install more patches, /var/sadm will start to get very 
large, which there is nothing you can do about, so after 2 or 3 years 
your /var will fill and you'll have to start bodging things to get them 
out of /var to give you more room for /var/sadm.

I just find it causes more problems than it solves, so long as you set 
up your system to maintain itself properly. If you never roll 
/var/log/maillog on a MailScanner system then yes, it will get very 
large, but set it up properly and keep your logs and quarantines pruned.


-- 
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
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