ZoneMinder Forums

I'm using the ZMLarch build for 1.24.2 and trying to learn the best way to set it up. The servers are dual 3.2GHz XEON, 4GB, with a single 1.5TB drive. Again, I'm not real familiar with the "proper" way to set up a system. The first system was set up more or less blind--I had just a very basic understanding, so I set it up with a 1.45TB root partition, put /home on a 25GB partition and about a 5GB swap partition. The first two partitions were defaulted to EXT3. Once I put 10-15 cameras on it, the performance was horrible. Load stayed around 5-6 and shot up as high as 10-12 and disk I/O seemed to be extremely high.

After doing a great deal of research, reading posts, etc, I took a different approach with the second server. I set it up with a 25GB root partition, put /var on a 1.45TB second partition and the 5GB swap partition. However, in addition to the different partition arrangements and putting /var instead of /home on it's own partition, I used reiserfs instead of EXT3. This server seems light years ahead of the other one with performance. I haven't had time to rebuild the first one to see if there is any type of hardware problem or if it's simply a bad configuration.

Any advice on the basic configuration? Am I doing the right thing on the second config?

Here is what i would do, if it helps:

/dev/sda1 - 128MB /boot, ext2
/dev/sda2 - 30GB /root, ext4
/dev/sda3 - 10GB /home, ext4(prefered) or ext3 (do you really need a home partition in a server? might want to use 40GB root if no\unsure)
/dev/sda4 - 1.45TB /var, ext4(prefered) or reiserfs
/dev/sda5 - 4GB swap

Make sure to use ext4 in the normal mode (with extents and new ext4 features enabled) and not compatibility mode (can mount as ext2/ext3, but extents and other ext4 features are disabled).
Partition separation, if done right with sizes in mind, is good because if one partition is corrupted, other partitions are unaffected.

Just my 2 cents,
mastertheknife.

mastertheknife wrote:Here is what i would do, if it helps:

/dev/sda1 - 128MB /boot, ext2
/dev/sda2 - 30GB /root, ext4
/dev/sda3 - 10GB /home, ext4(prefered) or ext3 (do you really need a home partition in a server? might want to use 40GB root if no\unsure)
/dev/sda4 - 1.45TB /var, ext4(prefered) or reiserfs
/dev/sda5 - 4GB swap

Make sure to use ext4 in the normal mode (with extents and new ext4 features enabled) and not compatibility mode (can mount as ext2/ext3, but extents and other ext4 features are disabled).
Partition separation, if done right with sizes in mind, is good because if one partition is corrupted, other partitions are unaffected.

Just my 2 cents,
mastertheknife.

Thanks for the advice. I'm assuming that putting the boot & root on separate partitions is a matter of recovery and other things should something go wrong? Other than putting boot, root & home on the same partition, I guess I was pretty close.

Ok, I reloaded the first server using the other config with a 25GB EXT root partition and a 1.4TB reiserfs partition for /var and a 6GB swap partition. All I can say on performance is WOW. I'm quite amazed at the difference. I have it loaded up with 20 cameras with a mix of record and modetect (about 50/50) and performance has gone from a load of about 5-6 to under 1 and that's with about 2-3 more cameras than before.