fsck inadequacies

Mardoc Inc mardoc-inc at rogers.com
Fri Nov 26 15:16:52 PST 2004


I run a FreeBSD system at a remote site. It costs me over $4000 to visit 
the site (northern arctic).
 It, along with some other equipment, runs off 2 x 50 kW diesel generators
which are swapped by a mechanic once per week.  The swap-over takes less 
than a minute. The computer runs
off a UPS, which easily holds its charge during the swap. 

But, unlike the other windows systems that run up there, the FreeBSD 
system seems incredibly
prone to disk corruption. Often the system will not reboot, and hangs 
while it asks for a file check.
I can't do that remotely - it has to be a person.
 I frequently need to run fsck, and that does not always work.  It is hard
to instruct a diesel mechanic on such matters from such a distance.  
"fsck -y"
 usually does not work either.

Is there any way I can make the disk a bit less sensitive?  e.g. some 
clever additional
command when I mount it in the fstab file which says "don't be too 
fussy  - boot up even
if I don't feel that well'.
It seems someone only needs to sneeeze and it goes into panic mode.  I 
would happily live with the odd
corrupt disk track or so if it means I can keep it running and at least 
be able to access
it remotely. Please don't advise me to be more careful and get a better 
power supply etc -
it simply is not possible. This is a very remote site, the humidity is 
low, static electricity
is always a problem. 

thanks

Wayne Hocking



More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list