On Sep 21 09:49:20, Nick Holland wrote: > >http://www.pcengines.ch/alix1c.htm (see dmesg at bottom). > >The intended use of the box is a home router/firewall/NAT/DNS/DHCP > >for my home "network" of about four computers (heterogeneous).
> >Firstly, swap (i don't really mind reinstalling). Install guide says > > > > On the root disk, the two partitions 'a' and 'b' must be > > created. The installation process will not proceed until these > > two partitions are available. 'a' will be used for the root > > filesystem (/) and 'b' will be used as swap space. > > oops. That's no longer true, you can now install Just Fine with no swap > partition. It was true some time back, but that was fixed long ago. OK, would someone delete this from /faq/faq4.html#Disks then, please? > >The machine has 256M of RAM, and the storage is a 2G CF card (seen as > >wd0). The machine is mostly idle (basically just routes). How much swap > >do you think I should set for such operation? > > none. If swapping is a concern, you don't want flash. > > >For regular operation, > >I don't think I need a swap partition at all (how would I do that? > >A 'b' partition of zero size, as it has to exist?), but to be able > >to save possible core dumps, I am thinking of 300M swap and 300M /var > >(to hold /var/crash). Is this reasonable? > > naw. Unless you know what to do with a core dump, just skip the swap. Will do, just wanted someone to assure me :-) > >Secondly, the network interfaces. The box comes with an on-board > >vr0 at pci0 dev 13 function 0 "VIA VT6105M RhineIII" rev 0x96: irq 10 > >which I currently use as the external iface, and the PIC slot holds > >rl0 at pci0 dev 12 function 0 "Realtek 8139" rev 0x10: irq 11 > >which is used as the internal iface. I also have the following > >cards in my hands, and I would like to figure out which combination > >of external/internal would give me the "best" performance (if it > >makes any difference at all): > > > > Intel PRO/100 S Desktop adapter > > 3C905C-TX-M Etherlink 10/100 PCI 3 > > If you gotta ask, it won't matter. > You have three bad NICs (vr, rl, xl) and one good one (fxp). But it > just won't matter for your use. [...] Philosophically, I'd probably > rather put Intel card showing to the Internet, but to fight that urge, > I ran my primary mail/web server with an rl(4) card facing the 'net > for many years with zero problem. Anything you are going to run > through this box will not hit the NICs as a bottleneck. OK, ext_if="fxp0" && int_if="vr0" for me then. (Made me read your post at bottom of http://archive.openbsd.nu/?ml=openbsd-misc&a=2004-01&t=18114 and the BUGS section of rl(4) and vr(4).) > >Thirdly, the CF storage. Having read > >http://www.kaschwig.net/projects/openbsd/wrap/#mfs > >http://blog.innerewut.de/2005/05/14/openbsd-3-7-on-wrap > >http://blog.innerewut.de/2005/05/19/openbsd-3-7-on-wrap-revised > >http://blog.innerewut.de/2005/06/03/small-update-on-openbsd-3-7-on-wrap > >(which apply to 3.7 on WRAP, the predecesor of ALIX), I am concerned > >about the CF wearing off. As these articles are from 2005 - do these > >things still apply to newer CF cards, and should I therefore set up > >a mfs? What else should I do to make the CF card live longer (noatime > >comes to mind of course). > > biggest reason to avoid writing to flash is it is painfully slow. This isn't really a concern in my situation - about the only thing the box will ever write is syslog messages (to an internal @loghost, probably). > General experience (inc. mine) seems to indicate that the finite write > cycle problems of flash is not going to bite you. There is a lifelong waranty for the CF card anyway, so I will just replace it once it dies. > It's a blooming computer system, how long do you even want it to last? :) > In two years, you will be buying 32G flash devices at the drugstore > closeout pile. True :-) > That being said, I'm not sold on the idea of flash as the "fail-proof" > storage media, I've seen and heard too many "my flash card died!" > stories to believe that. The only other storage option on the ALIX board is a 44pin IDE; the CF card is quieter and eats less yticirtcele, which is more important for me, as it is a router and is gonna be running 24/7 on my desk. > Back up at least your config, the critical files you need to rebuild > it will take only a tiny amount of space. All that really matters on this system is a few files in /etc (seriously), and these are backed up of course. > (thanks for the dmesg!) Aaah, I forgot to mail it to dmesg@ ! Thanks a lot, Nick! Jan
