Hello!

We use a server with a 2TB ext3 filesystem which has a Check interval of 2 month.

Now my question:

As it take about 3 hours to make the filesystemcheck we think about tuning that to every 6 month.

I looked for an offical statement what might be a good interval but i could not find anything.

Could somebody tell me what a good interval can be ( no, not 2 month, please ) ? Who has allready tuned an ext3 FS ?

Yours is an interesting question indeed.

I hail from the Air Traffic Control industry (www.maltats.com) and I might give some light how I would have dealt with it for my application, but you might have to adapt to yours.

Imagine a corrupt file system how it would impact your on your application. Then think about how often you can afford it and then how to finetune your system accoringly (assume an initial rule of thumb, say 5 system checks per failure). Document your assumptions and then monitor the system by raising occurrence reports in order to justify or correct your assumptions. Finally document everything and apply for a promotion :-).

Good Luck

Chris

Well I am just not sure how possible an error is. As we are a hospital we need a 24x7 access to the system, but it also has to be relaiable.

Hi saavik,

I assume that you cannot have 24X7 access with 100% reliability unless you have a infinite resources. Right? You need a compromise.

I suggest making assumptions for error frequency if you never had any before. If the figure is satisfactory stick to your present procedure. If you need to modify your procedure, think of a mitigation factor to counter balance the risk. You need to build an iterative process. Sorry to make only high level suggestions but it comes with my job.

Chris