Re: NetBSD-based file servers

[David Holland <dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 08:41:39PM +0100, Edgar Fu? wrote:
 > After the recent problems[*] we've been having with our (4.0/amd64)
 > file server, I'll surely be facing the question why we're not using
 > that other OS everybody else does.
 > 
 > So I need some data for that upcoming discussion. Who is using
 > NetBSD to operate a file server on a scale comparable to or larger
 > than ours, i.e. ~200 users, ~1TB storage? If so, which version on
 > what kind of hardware?

4.0 is Very Olde at this point, and amd64 in 4.0 was not quite fully
baked yet. It is definitely not what I would choose to run in
production. (I don't run a fileserver per se but I do have some
machines with real load on them. I moved them all to -5 ages ago.)

If I were setting up a new fileserver right now I'd put 6.0_BETA on
it, even in production. There may be some problems still, but there
are two overriding considerations vs 5.1_STABLE: (1) a pile of
vfs-level deadlocks have been fixed (not all the fixes can be applied
to 5.1_STABLE) and (2) Manuel Bouyer's new quotas that don't need
quotacheck.

I've had pretty good luck over the years using -current in production,
too. FWIW. Good luck trying that with That Other OS. ;-)

 > [*] Panic on quotaoff, HD failure on parity rebuild, failure to
 > negotiate sync SCSI with the replacement drive on attach, another
 > panic when trying to interrupt the reconstruction, lost disklabel
 > on the RAID set afterwards, then a damaged FS with need for manual
 > fsck. Loads of fun from ~1pm to ~1am.

Blah.

Do you have the details for the quotaoff panic? Although if it was
caused by hardware it may not be much help.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost