Are you using prelink on the machines? This changes the binaries to speed the startup. It breaks many "standard" forensic tools like md5sum. The verify options in rpm will strip the prelink bits before doing the compare to what it thinks should be installed.
Chris Reisor made the following keystrokes: > I'd try to get my hands on the source rpms and take a look at the > difference between spec files and the files in the SOURCES directory. > > You could end up in this situation simply by changing some or more of > the sources or the contents of the spec file, while not incrementing > the version number in the spec file. > > --chris > > On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Aleksey Tsalolikhin > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Summary:  Two CentOS 5.4 servers, one deployed Dec 2009, the other > > April 2010.  mkfs.ext3 performance differs wildly.  e2fsprogs package > > version is identical but the mkfs.ext3 binaries are different (but > > identical in size). > > > > I've already posted to the CentOS users mailing list... Any > > suggestions how else I could track this down? > > > > Thanks, > > Aleksey > > > > > > Situation:  two similar servers, both with CentOS 5.4 64-bit.  Making > > an ext3 filesystem on one takes seconds, on the other minutes. > > > > Partition Size   Server 1   Server 2 > > > > 1 GB          0.7 sec    0.3 sec > > > > 4 GB          2.5 sec    1.2 sec > > > > 40 GB         15 sec     13 min > > > > WTF > > > > I took "mkfs" and "mkfs.ext3" from server 1, put them on server 2, and > > got an improvement: > > > > 40 GB         15 sec     3 min > > > > Version numbers are identical but binaries different: > > > > e2fsprogs RPM is e2fsprogs-1.39-23.el5 on both systems > > mkfs --version reports "util-linux 2.13-pre7" on both systems > > mkfs -V reports the same on both systems (mke2fs 1.3 (29-May-2006) > > Using EXT2FS Library version 1.39) > > file size on mkfs and mkfs.ext3 binaries is identical > > > > However, checksum on these binaries differs across servers, and "cmp" > > reports files are different > > > > > > Just out of curiousity, I ran "rpm -V e2fsprogs" to see if rpm would > > pick up the difference and sure enough, it complained mkfs.ext3 > > changed. > > > > Both of these servers have CentOS 5.4; Server 1 was installed in Dec > > 2009, Server 2 in April 2010. > > > > I'd like to: > > > > (a) account for the difference in the binaries, and > > (b) see if something else is different that I can make the same to get > > the mkfs.ext3 time down to 15 sec on both systems. > > > > Solving (a) should shed light on (b).  Any ideas? > > > > Best, > > Aleksey > > _______________________________________________ > > Tech mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech > > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > >  http://lopsa.org/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Tech mailing list > [email protected] > http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/
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