[KLUG Members] Considering limited ReiserFS usage for Squid filesystem

[Bryan-TheBS-Smith]

[ This is for you ReiserFS gurus out there ;-P ]

As those who know me are aware of, I usually stick with Ext3 and XFS
because of their traditional UNIX designs and compatibility with
traditional UNIX services like NFS and quota.  But since ReiserFS is
included with the stock kernel as of 2.4.1, and offers excellent
small file performance and, even more so, massive file deletion much
better than Ext2/Ext3 and XFS, I am considering it for limited
roles.

One of those roles is for use as a filesystem for Squid, which is a
local-only filesystem that is not shared out, nor used for anything
else (unless you want performance issues ;-).  Regardless of whether
I use Ext2 or ReiserFS, I am going to approach it in the same
fashion in my new server configuration.  This is the procedure I'm
going to use to started Squid at every boot:

  - Format filesystem
  - Mount filesystem
  - Initialize Squid Cache *
  - Start Squid Daemon *

[ * These are actually handled by the RedHat squid init script,
which has a conditional to re-initialize the cache filesystem if it
doesn't exist. ]

Given the average 45-60 start-up time for Squid at boot, I don't see
an issue with the time involved in doing the extra steps before it. 
It would also eliminate any issues with improper shutdown and added
fsck times as well -- especially when any manual resolution may
result.

As such, I have the following questions:

1.  What kind of performance differentially while I have in using
ReiserFS versus Ext2 for Squid?

2.  I am sticking with RedHat (for various reasons, largely because
the rest of the system will be XFS, and that is what SGI builds
for), so what is the best way to get the ReiserFS support utils
installed?  From where?

3.  Are there any additional ReiserFS patches that are not in the
stock kernel I should be aware of?  I'm going to start off with the
updated, patched RedHat 7.1 kernel (2.4.3), but am planning to move
to 2.4.9 shortly (from stock -- actually from the XFS CVS tree, but
it is based on the stock kernel).

If #1 is not much and/or if #3 is too much, I might just stick with
Ext2.  If #1 is large enough, and if there is really nothing to do
when just using ReiserFS for a local filesystem running Squid, I
think the move to ReiserFS for Squid caching would be a good one.

Thanx in advance ...

-- TheBS

P.S.  FYI, server specs:
   2 x 466MHz CPU (yes, those dual-Celey BP6'ers)
   768MB ECC PC100 SDRAM
   81GB 3Ware (Hardware) RAID-0+1
      stripping & mirroring, (4) 40GB, 7200rpm Maxtor 40Plus
   RedHat 7.1 + XFS 1.0.1 (2.4.3, 2.4.9 from XFS CVS after I build
it)

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith    mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org    chat:thebs413
Engineer   AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.  http://www.linux-wlan.org
President    SmithConcepts, Inc.     http://www.SmithConcepts.com