[CentOS] Re: Native Command Queueing

Thu Jul 24 19:56:22 UTC 2008
Guy Boisvert <boisvert.guy at videotron.ca>

Scott Silva wrote:
> on 7-24-2008 6:51 AM Matt spake the following:
>> Is there anyway to enable NCQ on CentOS 4.6?  I guess anouther
>> question is on a somewhat high activity mail server with a single
>> SATA2 drive will it do any good?
>>
>> Matt
> I doubt it will make a BIG difference, but you might be looking for 
> trouble running a highly active server of any kind on a single spindle.
> 

I have a Communigate mail server that was running on a single WD 200 
Gigs IDE (7200 RPM).  Communigate uses separate mbox files for storage, 
very easy for backup / restore.

I was monitoring it with SAR and there was very high level of IOWait, 
meaning the drive was having a hard time.

Context:
========
35 Users Running Outlook with Communigate MAPI Plugin
80 Gigs dataset (Total)
Public folder with about 50 Gigs of stuff

We replaced the server with a Tyan Transport TA-26.  We put an Adaptec 
3405 (4 ports Unified SATA/SAS adapter) and 4 Seagate 15K SAS 73 Gigs 
drives (RAID 10).  No more iowaits even if now there is 50 users.

I don't know about your context but running on a single drive is 
dangerous for data loss anyway.

Hope this helped!


Guy Boisvert, ing.
IngTegration inc.