On Apr 20, 2013 10:01 PM, "Tanstaafl" <tansta...@libertytrek.org> wrote: > > Thanks for the responses so far... > > Another question - are there any caveats as to which filesystem to use for a mail server, for virtualized systems? Ir do the same issues/questions apply (ie, does the fact that it is virtualized not change anything)? > > If there are none, I'm curious what others prefer. > > I've been using reiserfs on my old mail server since it was first set up (over 8 years ago). I have had no issues with it whatsoever, and even had one scare with a bad UPS causing the system to experienc an unclean shutdown - but it came back up, auto fsck'd, and there was no 'apparent' data loss (this was a very long time ago, so if there had been any serious problems, I'd have known about it long go). > > I've been considering using XFS, but have never used it before. > > So, anyway, opinions are welcome... > > Thanks again > > Charles >
Reiterating what others have said, in a virtualized environment, it's how you build the underlying storage that will have the greatest effect on performance. Just an illustration: in my current employment, we have a very heavily used database (SQL Server). To ensure good performance, I dedicated a RAID array of 8 drives (15k RPM each), ensure that the space allocation is 'thick' not 'thin', and dedicate the whole RAID array to just that one VM. Performance went through the roof with that one... especially since it was originally a physical server running on top of 4 x 7200 RPM drives ;-) If you have the budget, you really should invest in a SAN Storage solution that can provide "tiered storage", in which frequently used blocks will be 'cached' in SSD, while less frequently used blocks are migrated first to slower SAS drives, and later on (if 'cold') to even slower SATA drives. Rgds, --
