[lug] Reliable SATA server?

[Sean Reifschneider]

On 04/30/2012 02:29 PM, Rob Nagler wrote:
> I guess it would be good to know the exact configuration, including
> which chassis.  Heat is a big problem in computers nowadays.  The only

As I said in a previous message, the chassis is:

   http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/6025/SYS-6025B-3.cfm

Because we're using ZFS we can in general get by with fewer discs, so we
haven't had to look at chassis that have more discs.  The drives are
Hitachi Deskstar drives, the systems have 16GB of RAM, and something like
dual L5420 CPUs.

> ZFS is more complex than ext3 by far.  While it may be engineered very

Why are you using this new-fangled ext3 stuff?  It's far more complex and
has many more moving parts than taring your backups out to the raw disc
device...  :-)

> This is interesting for HA.  Mixing threads.  How fast can ZFS compare
> a tree with 1M+ files in about 100GB?

No idea.

> businesses.  My point is that saying "it's the user's fault" is just
> plain wrong.  I educate our users all the time to appreciate that the

All I can do is read your description and provide whatever assistance I
think is relevant...  Based on the description, it sounds like "cp -l" is
causing your system to thrash, which can cause exactly what you were
describing with the system taking a very long time to respond to commands.
I have, personally, run into the same problem and resolved it by switching
away from using "cp -l", so really all I could do was say what you
interpreted as "it's the users fault".

Sean