I saw that FreePBX Distro install (so CentOS) performs disk automatic partitioning (default? I don’t care) and subsequently uses EXT3 as default file-system on created partitions. That’s OK, I could survive…but then few questions show up about disk wearing (not only when using SSD disks).
When using an SSD as system disk some tuning is IMHO necessary (as normally happens when installing a Linux distribution on those type of devices): as example the usage of “trim” option (EXT4 only) and/or “noatime” option on fstab and so on.
In your opinion the “noatime” option could interfere with FreePBX/Asterisk execution?
Then, more generically, is it advisable to enable file-system check after a set interval of time (let me say, as example 3 months or so) and/or after a number of mount operations has been reached (both are disabled so no file-system check will ever happen)?
Once and a while a file-system check should be run in order to ensure system stability even if when it once happens the boot process will suffer a normal delay (reboot, if necessary, during off-peak hours and possibly during night as well!).
The questions above while assuming that any FreePBX Distro deployment should be UPS protected.
That is why we provide a Advanced Option at install time so you can choose your settings. We dont do anything special for SSD drives nor would we ever recommend them for use in Asterisk. The read-writes kill them after a period of time.
But that is your decision and feel free to pick the Advanced Option and set it all up the way you want.
Lastly Centos 6.3 was using EXT3 but the Centos 6.4 ISO uses EXT4
About Advanced Setting during install I agree with you: I left Default…I was lazy enough to left Default…but this is out of the question.
My FreePBX Distro was originally a 3.211.63-1 (step by step upgraded over time to 4.211.64-6) so CentOS 6.3 and EXT3 was Default.
But, a part from that, could be interesting to see SSD behaviour (there are many serious discussions/tests that examined SSD wearing) with such type of systems.
A lot depends also on what type of SSD disk (I mean generation and internal disk controller technology, more or less we can say the same about rotational disk…take RAID Edition disk compared to normal Green disk, as example). Let we see.
In the meantime I decided to activate the “noatime” option and file-system check time/mount thresholds.
Thinking about what we’re saying (and about the different perspective the things we’re discussing could be seen…do /don’t touch Default settings, do/don’t do File-Systems tuning, to act like a set-and-forget user or as an average System Administrator) will be interesting to add a new “Reboot with File-System check” button into the System Admin - Power Options (sort of shutdown -Fr now command, by root) so the average user could perform that action (per Default inactive) through GUI and then check any results under /var/log/fsck/.
Well as you will see on the 4.211.64 we are using EXT4. Regardless the Advanced Setting is their for people to do just what you want to do.
As far as forced check disk. Will never force that on people. It seems to always happen at the most mission critical time on a reboot when you need it back up right away.
Go ahead and open a feature request to have some settings put in System Admin to set that up.