NASLite Network Attached Storage

Tony, can I suggest moving these posts to a new thread with an appropriate title? Perhaps you'll get more input.

Tony,

I like the approach outlined regarding what to do if there is no NIC.

As for fsck frequency, in the spirit of keeping it simple I like the idea of a config option for either check at startup or check at shutdown.

Tom

What would the significance of a fsck at boot or shutdown be? If rebooting, you'll be waiting no matter what. Georg makes a point that if shutting down due to power problem you'll be cutting power during fsck. Point is the safest time to fsck seems to be at boot as it is now. People are complaining about the frequent and random wait they have to deal with. If the frequency is the problem then deal with that and set it to something that wont intrude. Guess i'm having a hard time seeing the need for a big todo about this but then I don't subscribe to the nightly server reboot.

horses for courses surely Dimension - i use my main system on demand - it stores my tv stuff and videos - if i want to watch something i turn it on - there is no set time or frequency - just when i want to use it - it has 4 drives in it - so 4 chances of it doing a disk check at power up - if that happens then its a pain - so a check at power down would be useful for that system

i have a second system that i keep all my work and backups on - again i only power it up when i need it - but on that one a wait would not be as big a problem as i am generally only going to save to it whilst working - so i can wait

running either 24/7 is not needed and too expensive

will be bringing a third system on line in one of the neoware boxes - that will be on 24/7 so what disk check is the only question on that one

guess we all use the software differently so all have different preferences

but a simple option of at bootup or shutdown [if possible] would answer all my needs - altering the frequency is something that i can take care of

Ok ... here's my additional 2c after others' comments. I agree, let's go for simplicity. So,
a] simple option for user to choose 1] at boot or 2] at shutdown. DEFAULT should be 1].
b] Check interval (like the update interval choice) option. I don't know who ever would want some of these choices, but somewhat match the "-i" option of tune2fs: NEVER, COUNT, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, 30 days, plus a secondary FACTOR to apply to the main choice . (Note that update interval choices in v2.06 are also numerous and some make a lot less sense than others).

The user could choose "30 days" and "FACTOR 6" for 180 days. And this should be the FACTORY DEFAULT applied to the disks during format (but not to existing disks if they have been moved to the new version of NL). Notice that a new NL installation of multiple disks would thus end up with non-staggered fsck, but that's a reasonable limitation.

The "COUNT" choice is there for "maxcount" equivalency, with the FACTOR setting the actual count. This is for compatibility with the way most default setups work, and for those users that almost never shutdown who don't want to be inconvenienced by an fsck that happens due to the 180 day default. (Despite being good practice to do an fsck once in a while.)

Now the user has the option (WITHOUT booting a LiveCD and learning linux intricacies) to do what my objective is: staggered fsck only on Sundays. The user would (working on one disk, one Sunday at a time) perform a forced manual disk check with an existing menu choice, then set the interval to "weekly" and "FACTOR 5" (for example if user has 5 disks).

I know option b] above isn't in-line with the "simplicity" argument ... but my main beef was the randomness at which my maxcounts were somehow set differently on my 3 drives ... this would solve it without resorting to Linux LiveCD.


edit: "NEVER" would be superfluous ... use COUNT and "0" ... sorry.
edit: sorry, I meant "v2.06" not "v2.6" (I corrected the above).

I understand and am not arguing. What I'm suggesting is why not leave things as they are but change the interval to 180 reboots and 180 days which would happen once every 6 months instead of twice each month. That's all i'm saying.

Agreed

I don't see a problem with 180/180 since the filesystem sees controlled use only. We can set the parameters automatically at boot so every filesystem will follow that criteria. That way existing filesystems will be set to match on the fly. I think I like that solution since it seems to address the problem short of introducing additional configuration options.

Will that approach be acceptable as a compromise?

i would still like the option to have it at shutdown for the reasons i give above

the frequency then would not really be an issue - after all what we are using Naslite for is to store and retrieve files - of whatever kind - its the fastest thing on the block to boot up - but all that is defeated if it starts a disk check

That would make it a bunch simpler, which is always good. Only problem I have (and maybe others) with it is that I would prefer not to default to this "on the fly". Do it only ( I mentioned this in my lengthy post above ) if user formats disk(s). Don't apply it to disks already previously in use with NL (you'd be messing up my carefully implemented scheme )

Oh yeah ... (although I would not be a user of it) that boot/shutdown option should remain; it's simple and useful for some.

I like the 180/180 proposal and am content to leave checking at boot. Would it be possible to introduce a prompt (in the event that a disk is to be checked *this* boot) to defer that check to the next boot? There's nothing surer than the disk-check scheduling itself for the *most* inopportune time....

That would kind of defeat the purpose of a forced check. By overriding this it would be too easy for some to simply skip disk checking every time they reboot. Also, how would you propose alerting those of use who run it as a headless box without making NasLite more complex than necessary?

Inevitably, when you ask 100 people what their preference for x feature on y product would be, you'll get z different answers requiring n changes. I will second my vote for 180/180 for the sake of simplicity. Before/after is irrelevant to me, since I never shut mine down.

I do not run mine headless - it's on the same KWM as my PC's. I also power down nightly. There are days at a time when the server is not switched on.

The option to consciously defer the disk-check (say, a 5 second "press any key to skip disk-check" prompt) would not affect a headless installation as the user would never see it.

Skipping continuously would obviously be inadvisable - but there are times when you just *need* data / files / etc. which are stored on the server. Waiting an hour in this scenario is a PITA.

surely that is the best argument for a diskcheck at shutdown - assuming that is that it is

a - possible - and
b - it does the same technically as a check at bootup

As I said earlier, I am not totally comfortable with the idea of an unattended shutdown (after about an hours delay) - Windows has failed to shutdown for me too many times. As also previously acknowledged though, I have not had a shutdown problem in 2 years.