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BlogLinuxFilesystem Helpers

Filesystem Helpers

New feature in the LPM: Filesystem Helpers

[b]What is it?[/b]

Currently, the only helper that’s been implemented is “Disable updatedb”, which disables any cron jobs that run the updatedb command. This should help, if not eliminate, the high nightly load averages experienced on the hosts when a number of Linodes run updatedb at the same time. By default our distributions have these cron jobs disabled, but using your package manager to upgrade your filesystem can restore them.

This is accomplished by mounting your filesystem when you issue a boot job, and “chmod a-x” any files in /etc/cron.* that have “updatedb” on a non-commented line.

[b]Other Filesystem Helpers will/could be:[/b]

Make sure /etc/fstab is sane
Make sure /etc/inittab is sane

[b]How do I enable/disable this thing?[/b]

Your configuration profile in the LPM has a new option: “Disable UpdateDB”. By default it is enabled. I encourage everyone to leave this option enabled, and just run updatedb manually if you need to use the locate facility.

Other suggestions welcome.

-Chris

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