Mailing List Archive: Diskless mail servers.

Diskless mail servers.

Mar 19, 1997, 7:50 AM

Post #1 of 4 (619 views)

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On Wed, 19 Mar 1997, Paul Fox wrote:

> hi -- in the THOUGHTS document, dan says the following in a paragraph
> regarding the dangers of mounting the queue directory via NFS.

I don't know enough about the dangers of NFS but is there an easy way for
me to test if my NFS server/client combination can run qmail queue safely?
We are currently about to invest in some NFS servers with RAID disks to
easy the administration and increase the availability of our servers. We
are even thinking about having diskless mailservers so it would nice if
there were an easy way to see if it is possible with the different NFS
servers we are considering.

/Sebastian

See http://www.hogia.net/~sa/public_key.asc for public pgp key.

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Re: Diskless mail servers. [ In reply to ]

cwg at DeepEddy

Mar 19, 1997, 10:03 AM

Post #2 of 4 (610 views)

Permalink

> On Wed, 19 Mar 1997, Paul Fox wrote:
>
> > hi -- in the THOUGHTS document, dan says the following in a paragraph
> > regarding the dangers of mounting the queue directory via NFS.
>
> I don't know enough about the dangers of NFS but is there an easy way for
> me to test if my NFS server/client combination can run qmail queue safely?
> We are currently about to invest in some NFS servers with RAID disks to
> easy the administration and increase the availability of our servers. We
> are even thinking about having diskless mailservers so it would nice if
> there were an easy way to see if it is possible with the different NFS
> servers we are considering.

You're considering Auspex, I assume...

Much as I like the Auspex product, I equally dislike completely dickless
workstations. You really should have your root/var/swap... on the local
system for a variety of reasons.

Chris

--
Chris Garrigues O- cwg@DeepEddy.Com
Deep Eddy Internet Consulting +1 512 432 4046
609 Deep Eddy Avenue
Austin, TX 78703-4513 http://www.DeepEddy.Com/~cwg/

Re: Diskless mail servers. [ In reply to ]

pgf at foxharp

Mar 19, 1997, 12:10 PM

Post #3 of 4 (625 views)

Permalink

> > I don't know enough about the dangers of NFS but is there an easy way for
> > me to test if my NFS server/client combination can run qmail queue safely?
>
> You're considering Auspex, I assume...
>
> Much as I like the Auspex product, I equally dislike completely dickless
> workstations. You really should have your root/var/swap... on the local
> system for a variety of reasons.
>

i hope this branch of NFS bashing doesn't dissuade anyone from answering
my original query regarding a simple sendmail replacement for client
machines. :-)

paul
(i'm no great fan of diskless computing, but i must say it makes for a
wonderfully quiet living room machine to have a silent temperature
controlled fan (it has a SmartPower power supply), no disk, and boot linux
via a netboot floppy. armchair surfing at its best... ;-)

---------------------
paul fox, pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma)

Re: Diskless mail servers. [ In reply to ]

agulbra at troll

Mar 19, 1997, 1:00 PM

Post #4 of 4 (620 views)

Permalink

Paul Fox <pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us>
> i hope this branch of NFS bashing doesn't dissuade anyone from answering
> my original query regarding a simple sendmail replacement for client
> machines. :-)

I wrote a small /usr/*/sendmail replacement a few years ago. It has
some problems with parsing weird destination address headers (when
using -t), otherwise it's fine. If anyone wants to take it on, write
me.

Its modus operandi is basically:

- read in the message on stdin
- figure out my fqdn
- try to punt the message to an MX for myself
- sleep a bit if that's impossible, then try again

--Arnt