[NTLUG:Discuss] writing to a USB drive locks up server..

[Richard]

LEROY TENNISON wrote:
> Might want to Google for e2fs and inode or architecture.  I did so long ago and found that e2fs has three levels of pointers to data.  Don't know if this has anything to do with your situation but, if it is having to build more complex data structures as it goes that might account for the slow down.
>
>   
Three levels of pointers to data, huh?   Hm.. well, in my case the slow 
downs can come even from just formatting the drive.  So...no data on 
these drives yet.  Also, the slow down seems to be intermittent.   For a 
few days the server was accessing the USB drives just FINE, then for no 
decernable reason, things started getting slow and processes went into 
the Uninterruptible sleep  state.  IBM tech support mentioned that 
unterminated usb cables (cables plugged into the motherboard but not 
plugged into a device) can cause issues. (I don't know that I believe 
them on that, though.)

At this point we are moving the USB drives to a different server and 
seeing if the server can remain stable all by its lonesome.

-- 
Richard