284 lines
10 KiB
HTML
284 lines
10 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
|
|
<HTML>
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
|
|
<TITLE>HOWTO: Multi Disk System Tuning: Further Information</TITLE>
|
|
<LINK HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO-17.html" REL=next>
|
|
<LINK HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO-15.html" REL=previous>
|
|
<LINK HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO.html#toc16" REL=contents>
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
<BODY>
|
|
<A HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO-17.html">Next</A>
|
|
<A HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO-15.html">Previous</A>
|
|
<A HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO.html#toc16">Contents</A>
|
|
<HR>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="s16">16. Further Information</A></H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
There is wealth of information one should go through when setting up a
|
|
major system, for instance for a news or general Internet service provider.
|
|
The FAQs in the following groups are useful:
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.1">16.1 News groups</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!news groups
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
Some of the most interesting news groups are:
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="news:comp.arch.storage">Storage</A>.</LI>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage">PC storage</A>.</LI>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="news:alt.filesystems.afs">AFS</A>.</LI>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="news:comp.periphs.scsi">SCSI</A>.</LI>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.setup">Linux setup</A>.</LI>
|
|
</UL>
|
|
<P>Most newsgroups have their own FAQ that are designed to answer most of your
|
|
questions, as the name Frequently Asked Questions indicate. Fresh versions
|
|
should be posted regularly to the relevant newsgroups. If you cannot find it
|
|
in your news spool you could go directly to the
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu">FAQ main archive FTP site</A>. The WWW versions can be browsed at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/FAQ-List.html">FAQ main archive WWW site</A>.
|
|
<P>Some FAQs have their own home site, of particular interest here are
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.scsifaq.org/">SCSI FAQ</A> and</LI>
|
|
<LI>
|
|
<A HREF="http://alumni.caltech.edu/~rdv/comp-arch-storage/FAQ-1.html">comp.arch.storage FAQ</A>.</LI>
|
|
</UL>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.2">16.2 Mailing Lists</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!mailing lists
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
These are low noise channels mainly for developers. Think
|
|
twice before asking questions there as noise delays the development.
|
|
Some relevant lists are <CODE>linux-raid</CODE>, <CODE>linux-scsi</CODE> and <CODE>linux-ext2fs</CODE>.
|
|
Many of the most useful mailing lists run on the <CODE>vger.rutgers.edu</CODE> server
|
|
but this is notoriously overloaded, so try to find a mirror. There are some lists mirrored at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com">The Redhat Home Page</A>.
|
|
Many lists are also accessible at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.linuxhq.com/lnxlists/">linuxhq</A>,
|
|
and the rest of the web site is a gold mine of useful information.
|
|
<P>If you want to find out more about the lists available you can send a message
|
|
with the line <CODE>lists</CODE> to the list server at vger.rutgers.edu (
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu">majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu</A>).
|
|
If you need help on how to use the mail server just send the line <CODE>help</CODE>
|
|
to the same address.
|
|
Due to the popularity of this server it is likely it takes a bit to time before
|
|
you get a reply or even get messages after you send a <CODE>subscribe</CODE> command.
|
|
<P>There is also a number of other majordomo list servers that can be of interest
|
|
such as the EATA driver list (
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:linux-eata@mail.uni-mainz.de">linux-eata@mail.uni-mainz.de</A>)
|
|
and the Intelligent IO list
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:linux-i2o@dpt.com">linux-i2o@dpt.com</A>.
|
|
<P>Mailing lists are in a state of flux but you can find links to a number of
|
|
interesting lists from the
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">Linux Documentation Homepage</A>.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.3">16.3 HOWTO</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!HOWTOs
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
These are intended as the primary starting points to
|
|
get the background information as well as show you how to solve
|
|
a specific problem.
|
|
Some relevant HOWTOs are <CODE>Bootdisk</CODE>, <CODE>Installation</CODE>, <CODE>SCSI</CODE> and <CODE>UMSDOS</CODE>.
|
|
The main site for these is the
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">LDP archive</A>.
|
|
<P>There is a a new HOWTO out that deals with setting up a
|
|
DPT RAID system, check out the
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.ram.org/computing/linux/dpt_raid.html">DPT RAID HOWTO homepage</A>.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.4">16.4 Mini-HOWTO</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!mini-HOWTOs
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
These are the smaller free text relatives to the HOWTOs.
|
|
Some relevant mini-HOWTOs are
|
|
<CODE>Backup-With-MSDOS</CODE>, <CODE>Diskless</CODE>, <CODE>LILO</CODE>, <CODE>Large Disk</CODE>,
|
|
<CODE>Linux+DOS+Win95+OS2</CODE>, <CODE>Linux+OS2+DOS</CODE>, <CODE>Linux+Win95</CODE>,
|
|
<CODE>NFS-Root</CODE>, <CODE>Win95+Win+Linux</CODE>, <CODE>ZIP Drive</CODE> .
|
|
You can find these at the same place as the HOWTOs, usually in a sub directory
|
|
called <CODE>mini</CODE>. Note that these are scheduled to be converted into SGML and
|
|
become proper HOWTOs in the near future.
|
|
<P>The old <CODE>Linux Large IDE mini-HOWTO</CODE> is no longer valid, instead read
|
|
<CODE>/usr/src/linux/drivers/block/README.ide</CODE> or
|
|
<CODE>/usr/src/linux/Documentation/ide.txt</CODE>.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.5">16.5 Local Resources</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!local
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
In most distributions of Linux there is a document directory installed,
|
|
have a look in the
|
|
<A HREF="file:///usr/doc">/usr/doc</A> directory.
|
|
where most packages store their main documentation and README files etc.
|
|
Also you will here find the HOWTO archive (
|
|
<A HREF="file:///usr/doc/HOWTO">/usr/doc/HOWTO</A>)
|
|
of ready formatted HOWTOs
|
|
and also the mini-HOWTO archive (
|
|
<A HREF="file:///usr/doc/HOWTO/mini">/usr/doc/HOWTO/mini</A>)
|
|
of plain text documents.
|
|
<P>Many of the configuration files mentioned earlier can be found in the
|
|
<A HREF="file:///etc">/etc</A>
|
|
directory. In particular you will want to work with the
|
|
<A HREF="file:///etc/fstab">/etc/fstab</A>
|
|
file that sets up the mounting of partitions
|
|
and possibly also
|
|
<A HREF="file:///etc/mdtab">/etc/mdtab</A>
|
|
file that is used for the <CODE>md</CODE> system to set up RAID.
|
|
<P>The kernel source in
|
|
<A HREF="file:///usr/src/linux">/usr/src/linux</A>
|
|
is, of course, the ultimate documentation. In other
|
|
words, <EM>use the source, Luke</EM>.
|
|
It should also be pointed out that the kernel comes not only with
|
|
source code which is even commented (well, partially at least)
|
|
but also an informative
|
|
<A HREF="file:///usr/src/linux/Documentation">documentation directory</A>.
|
|
If you are about to ask any questions about the kernel you should
|
|
read this first, it will save you and many others a lot of time
|
|
and possibly embarrassment.
|
|
<P>Also have a look in your system log file (
|
|
<A HREF="file:///var/log/messages">/var/log/messages</A>)
|
|
to see what is going on and in particular how the booting went if
|
|
too much scrolled off your screen. Using <CODE>tail -f /var/log/messages</CODE>
|
|
in a separate window or screen will give you a continuous update of what is
|
|
going on in your system.
|
|
<P>You can also take advantage of the
|
|
<A HREF="file:///proc">/proc</A>
|
|
file system that is a window into the inner workings of your system.
|
|
Use <CODE>cat</CODE> rather than <CODE>more</CODE> to view the files as they are
|
|
reported as being zero length. Reports are that <CODE>less</CODE> works well here.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.6">16.6 Web Pages</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!WWW
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!web pages
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
There is a huge number of informative web pages out there and by their very
|
|
nature they change quickly so don't be too surprised if these links become
|
|
quickly outdated.
|
|
<P>A good starting point is of course the
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">Linux Documentation Homepage</A>.
|
|
that is a information central for documentation, project pages and much, much more.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI>Mike Neuffer, the author of the DPT caching RAID controller drivers, has some
|
|
interesting pages on
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/">SCSI</A>
|
|
and
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/dpt/">DPT</A>.
|
|
</LI>
|
|
<LI>Software RAID development information can be found at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.kernel.org/">Linux Kernel site</A>
|
|
along with patches and utilities.
|
|
</LI>
|
|
<LI>Disk related information on benchmarking, RAID, reliability and
|
|
much, much more can be found at
|
|
<A HREF="http://linas.org">Linas Vepstas</A>
|
|
project page.
|
|
</LI>
|
|
<LI>There is also information available on how to
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.bizsystems.com/pub/raid/Root-RAID-HOWTO.html">RAID the root partition</A>
|
|
and what software packages are needed to achieve this.
|
|
</LI>
|
|
<LI>In depth documentation on
|
|
<A HREF="http://step.polymtl.ca/~ldd/ext2fs/ext2fs_toc.html">ext2fs</A>
|
|
is also available.
|
|
|
|
|
|
</LI>
|
|
<LI>People who looking for information on VFAT, FAT32 and Joliet
|
|
could have a look at the
|
|
<A HREF="http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/index.html">development page</A>.
|
|
These drivers are in the 2.1.x kernel development series as well as
|
|
in 2.0.34 and later.
|
|
|
|
</LI>
|
|
</UL>
|
|
<P>For diagrams and information on all sorts of disk drives, controllers etc. both
|
|
for current and discontinued lines
|
|
<A HREF="http://theref.aquascape.com/theref.html">The Ref</A>
|
|
is the site you need. There is a lot of useful information here, a real treasure trove.
|
|
<P>Please let me know if you have any other leads that can be of interest.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="ss16.7">16.7 Search Engines</A>
|
|
</H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!search engines
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!Troubleshooting mini-HOWTO
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
disk!information resources!Updated mini-HOWTO
|
|
-->
|
|
<P>When all fails try the internet search engines. There is a huge number
|
|
of them, all a little different from each other. It falls outside the
|
|
scope of this HOWTO to describe how best to use them. Instead you
|
|
could turn to the Troubleshooting on the Internet mini-HOWTO, and the
|
|
Updated mini-HOWTO.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>If you have to ask for help you are most likely to get help in the
|
|
<A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.setup">Linux Setup</A>
|
|
news group.
|
|
Due to large workload and a slow network connection I am not able to
|
|
follow that newsgroup so if you want to contact me you have to do so
|
|
by e-mail.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<HR>
|
|
<A HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO-17.html">Next</A>
|
|
<A HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO-15.html">Previous</A>
|
|
<A HREF="Multi-Disk-HOWTO.html#toc16">Contents</A>
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|