database machine configuration is a key performance factor. The latest AFS
releases are a lot more memory hungry than older releases; and even if
your cell has not grown much, chances are your AFS backup database
is a lot larger than it used to be. Slow database machines
will slow down even the speediest clients & file servers
(and *will* even slow down backups) so it's worth making sure your
database servers aren't overloaded, but are fast, endowed with more
than enough memory to avoid paging, don't do anything but DB service,
and & have plenty of fast disk for that.
Marcus,
I'm relatively new to the afs environment. Everything you outlined in your
message made sense, however I'm curious about your recommendation of having AFS
DB servers provide only DB services. What about having these do AFS file
services also? I recently raised this same question to Transarc, and their
response was "most sites run AFS file services on the DB systems as it is not
cost effective to buy a server license for just DB services". Cost is a factor
for us, but performance is paramount.
Troy Thompson
Battelle Labs
Richland WA
