On 07/19/2012 10:44 AM, David Sommerseth wrote:
> On 18/07/12 23:02, Orion Poplawski wrote:
>> On 07/18/2012 02:50 PM, Todd And Margo Chester wrote:
>>>
>>>      I don't know the exact number, I think it is 27 reboots,
>>> your boot will automatically drop to an FSCK.  In RHEL5,
>>> your would see a status bar showing you progress.  In 6,
>>> you get no indication that an FSCK is happening and you
>>> think you are frozen.  The temptation to throw the power
>>> switch is overwhelming.
>>
>> I can't speak to the lack of status, but you can disable the automatic
>> fsck with:
>>
>> tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/....
>>
>> This is pretty much done automatically now for any filesystems that the
>> install makes, but not ones that you create later.
>
> If using ext{2,3,4}, I would strongly recommend *against* doing this.
> Running fsck from time to time isn't a bad thing.  It can surely happen
> that it finds some things which should be fixed.  If this is needed fro
> xfs, I dunno.  For reiserfs it is not needed, it will take care of this
> on its own - and really needed, it'll scream loudly and you won't be
> able to mount that partition/lv and this fix might take hours to
> complete.  Regarding other file systems, I have no experience.
>
> Removing these fsck's is like skipping taking your car to a car check
> every now and then.  You car may run for a long way without a service.
> But when it is really needed, it can take a long time to fix and might
> be more costly compared to if you did this regularly ... and if you want
> a reliable server, having a little maintenance downtime couple of times
> during a year might not be such a bad investment - in the long run.
>
> Just my 2cents

Rebooting a critical server only to have it be down unexpectedly for a long 
period of time while it does a filesystem check is a problem too.  While 
periodically running fsck on your system may be a good idea, it should be done 
at predictable times.

-- 
Orion Poplawski
Technical Manager                     303-415-9701 x222
NWRA, Boulder Office                  FAX: 303-415-9702
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