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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!chi-news.cic.net!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!gatech!purdue!oitnews.harvard.edu!news.dfci.harvard.edu!camelot.ccs.neu.edu!nntp.neu.edu!news3.near.net!sol.caps.maine.edu!web.ddp.state.me.us!gatekeeper.ddp.state.me.us!isdmill From: isdmill@gatekeeper.ddp.state.me.us (David Miller) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Optimization for a News server Date: 14 Feb 1996 19:13:56 GMT Organization: Maine State Government Lines: 40 Message-ID: <4ftc9k$7te@web.ddp.state.me.us> References: <4foqfk$fu6@soggy.eis.net.au> <DMq59v.IAD@ritz.mordor.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gatekeeper.ddp.state.me.us X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Chris Mauritz (ritz@ritz.mordor.com) wrote: : Ernie Elu (ernie@eis.net.au) wrote: : : I am in the process of setting up FreeBSD news server running INN to : : replace my current Linux server as an experiment. : : : : The current machine is quite a busy little 486DX40. : : I am keen to hear of any suggetions on how to configure FreeBSD to get : : the maximum performance as a news server. : To get the most out of a news server, you should have: : *32-64mb RAM (64 is much better *grin*) : *SCSI-2 PCI or VLB disk controller (I prefer PCI) : *At least 3 fast disks to spread things over (I prefer Barracudas) : (put alt on one, all the other hierchies on another, and all the : other news binaries/logs/history files on the 3rd one) : *To squeeze out even more bits, using 2 disk controllers would : also help since 3 7200rpm drives can easily saturate a non-wide : SCSI bus. All good suggestions. With news you'll be doing *tons* of seeks an not much streaming IO, so the second adapter might not gain you much. I'd opt for more memory on it myself. : With the size of a current newsfeed, I'd start with 3 Seagate : or Conner 7200rpm 4 gig drives. I like this:) : Of course, these are all hardware suggestions. :-) If the machine : is only a news box I suppose you might improve things by forcing : the OS to use a much larger disk buffer cache. How you would go : about doing that on FreeBSD I haven't a clue. I also make sure I don't think you do:) I believe FreeBSD makes all "spare" memory disk cache automatically, and seeks to balance all disk accesses. -- David Miller Usual disclaimers apply