baileyc@ncar.ucar.edu (BAILEY CHRISTOPHER R) (11/21/90)
Help! We are having problems with our SPARCstation 1. The problems deal with inode's. I believe it is inode's referring to memory, not disk, if this is possible. I don't know much about inodes at all. The problem usually occurs when our Ingres database is doing a large operation (I'm not sure exactly what though). We get errors saying something to the effect "out of inode space" and some other things. The problem goes away as soon as the person finishes working in Ingres. Our system is configured as follows: SPARCstation 1, 24MB memory, two 150MB hard drives, swap space of 32MB, serving 2 diskless Sun 3/60 workstations running AutoCAD r10, about 15 terminals (light load, just running Word Perfect), also networked with a Sun 3/160 serving primarily as storage. Ingres is set up on the SPARC drives. Also, the Kernel for the SPARC is configed for 8 users, which I believe is the default. Now, I calculated how mnay users it should be configed for according to the algorithm in the generic kernel file. I believe it was around 15-18. I reconfigured the Kernel for this, but some- one made a mistake in a transfer for INGRES and they blamed it on this, so management made me put it back down to 8. I never had a chance to see if the inode errors went away when we reconfiged. (management sucks sometimes!) Anway, could the kernel config be the problem? Oh, there are also about 6 windows open at all times on the SPARC (two perfmeters, contool, cmdtool/ shelltool, texteditor, a shelltool "rlogined" to one of the 3/60's, mail, and soemtimes some other stuff. So, any ideas on what can cause inode problems such as this? If noone has any ideas immediately, I am getting a copy of the exact errors, so I will post those. Thanks!!!!!!!! Chris Bailey :: baileyc@tramp.Colorado.EDU One Agro Mountain Biker - Dialed in for ultra gonzo badness! "No his mind is not for rent, to any god or government" - RUSH Member of Team Buck Naked of Buckingham Palace
jim@ferkel.ucsb.edu (Oreo Cat) (12/01/90)
Changing the users in the kernel will only *help*. It's not going to make
your ingres mess up. Tell whoever made the mistake with the transfer to
get a life before he goes blaming all his problems on you. Not sure what
your problem is, but I do know that you are using up lots of memory with
your applications. What might be happening is that you are using up swap
space. This wouldn't explain the running out of inodes unless you are
swapping on a file. I suspect you might be doing this as you have a
non-standard swap size. I beleive that 32 meg swap is also too small for
a 24 meg machine. The usual rule of thumb which has worked well for me,
and is mentioned somewhere deep inside the installation manual is that you
should have your swap space should be twice the size of real memory. So
you should have 48 megs of swap. With something as big as a multi-user
database, this could make a big difference. And also, if at all possible,
make it as a single disk partition on a local disk. Don't swap over the
network to your Sun 3 as this will kill your performance. Also you really
should reconfig your kernel. Do it without telling anyone and see if it
helps. Also, I consider it very valuable to sit down and just read the
manuals every once in a while. Even if you don't have any problems, you
can learn a lot from the manuals. I often find a solution to a problem
I've had for months just by browsing through the manual one day.
Jim Lick
jim@ferkel.ucsb.edu | bahamut!jim@ivucsb.sba.ca.us