dshr@SUN.COM (David Rosenthal) (12/10/88)
Here is the basic information that is in the RTF Appendix E. I have used
most of these on my 3/75 for some time, adn I also ran a 3/50 for a while
with them. I use NeWS1.1, X11R{2,3}, and X/NeWS, but not SunView.
David.
Routing
Workstations with only one ethernet interface do not need to do dynamic
routing with in.routed; instead, they can route statically by commenting
out (# in column 1) these lines in /etc/rc.local:
#if [ -f /usr/etc/in.routed ]; then
# in.routed; (echo -n ' routed') >/dev/console
#fi
(Routing table entries can still be added or modified by the kernel as a
result of ICMP redirect messages.) Diskless clients have a default route
provided automatically by the server; on other workstations, a command of
the form
/usr/etc/route add default <router> 1
can be added to rc.local, where "router" is the hostname of an IP router
("gateway") on your local network.
This action frees up both the pages used by in.routed and most of the
memory allocated for routing table entries. Here at Sun in Mountain View,
static routing typically reduces the size of the routing table from over
150 entries to 3.
Sendmail
Receiving mail on a diskless workstation typically causes a significant
amount of paging, not only due to the creation of sendmail and /bin/mail
processes, but also due to alias resolution and access over the network
to the mailbox on the server. Recommendation: have each client mount its
spool directory via secure NFS, change the YP alias map to direct users'
mail to their servers, and don't run sendmail on the clients. For example,
add a line like the following to each client's /etc/fstab:
server:/var/spool/mail /var/spool/mail nfs rw,bg,hard,intr,secure 0 0
Export /var/spool/mail on the server using the "secure" option. (Don't
forget to run exportfs.) Change or create aliases in /etc/aliases on the
YP master to provide aliases of the form
user: user@server
for all users who would otherwise receive mail on the clients, and re-make
the YP alias map (cd /var/yp; make aliases). Comment out these lines in
each client's /etc/rc.local and reboot the clients:
#if [ -f /usr/lib/sendmail -a -f /etc/sendmail.cf ]; then
# (cd /var/spool/mqueue; rm -f nf* lf*)
# /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q1h; (echo -n ' sendmail')>/dev/console
#fi
An interesting side effect of this change is that a user can receive mail
even if the client workstation is down. This change is also useful in
environments where users wish to be able to log in to any machine of a
cluster and read their mail.
Accounting
Don't enable process accounting. If accounting is not configured into the
kernel ("options SYSACCT"), or the file /var/adm/acct does not exist at boot
time, accounting is not enabled (see /etc/rc).
Other changes in /etc/rc.local
Don't start unnecessary server processes. Typically only portmap, ypbind,
biod (4 of them), syslogd, update, inetd, and lpd are required on client
workstations. Add keyserv if you use secure NFS, and sendmail if you don't
implement the sendmail strategy above.
Miscellaneous
Make sure that you have defined LOGHOST if required as specified on page 3
of the 4.0 Read This First document (part number 800-1737-16).
Don't enable file system quotas. (By default, quotas are not enabled.)
Replacing /usr/ucb/quota with /usr/bin/true will prevent possible delays
at login time due to calls to rpc.rquotad on each NFS server from which
you have a filesystem mounted.
Use the default SunView background, and don't use retained windows.
Don't enable in.rwhod.
Minimizing kernel size (last but certainly not least)
Kernel configuration file
Remove all unnecessary entries from the kernel configuration file.
For example, the following lines can be removed from DL50 in
/usr/sys/sun3/conf:
options CRYPT (unless you use secure NFS)
pseudo-device clone
pseudo-device snit
pseudo-device pf
pseudo-device nbuf
device des0 at obio ? csr 0x1c0000
Streams NIT is used by etherfind; to run etherfind, boot another kernel
or run it on the server.
In many cases "maxusers" can be reduced to 3. Also, these lines can be
changed as follows:
pseudo-device dtop1
pseudo-device ms1
pseudo-device kb1
Streams buffers
The default allocation of streams buffers is overly generous. Use the
following procedure to make a kernel with smaller allocations.
1. Run config using your modified configuration file.
2. In /usr/share/sys/sun3/<KERNELNAME>/param.c, modify these lines as
follows:
#define NBLK2048 4
#define NBLK1024 4
#define NBLK512 4
#define NBLK256 16
#define NBLK128 64
#define NBLK64 64
#define NBLK16 64
#define NBLK4 64
#define NSTREAM 20
#define NMUXLINK 37
#define NSTREVENT 64
Larger allocations may be required in some environments; in some
circumstances running out can deadlock the system. Check your usage
with netstat -m.
3. Run "make".
Ethernet buffers
If you have an "le" Ethernet interface (Sun-3/50 or 3/60), reduce the
number of Ethernet buffers:
adb -w vmunix
_le_nrmdp2?W 3
_le_nrbufs?W A
(type ^D or $q to quit)
If you have an "ie" Ethernet interface:
adb -w vmunix
_ie_tbufs?W 1
_ie_rbds?W 6
_ie_rfds?W 5
_ie_rbufs?W 9
(^D or $q to quit)
UFS (Unix file system) buffers
If you have a disk, you can reduce the number of buffers allocated
to the UFS buffer cache:
adb -w vmunix
_nbuf?W 6
(^D or $q to quit)
Those of you with access to the patch machine 'yabbadabba' can retrieve
scripts to make the above kernel changes from /CSD/4.0perf.