A cheap VPS or an SD card lack the storage capacity for running a usable
default cwfs(4) setup with a big WORM partition and daily dumps.
The go-to solution is the hjfs(4) file system, which doesn’t
use a dedicated WORM partition and doesn’t do daily dumps by default.
However, it has several performance problems and is not as well tested.
The cwfs file system can be configured in lots of ways beyond the
default cache-worm + other configuration supported by the 9front
installer.
The desired configuration we’re going to cover is a single main
file server tree backed by a simple disk file system - the same type
used by the other tree in the default setup.
To do this we’re going to partition the disk appropriately and override
the mountcwfs stage of the 9front installer with a replacement
script that will configure cwfs
appropriately. The rest of the installation and most of the
subsequent system operation remain unaffected.
Start by booting from the installation media. Configure networking
with ip/ipconfig(8) and fetch the replacement mountcwfs script,
or put the script on a flash drive:
webfs
ramfs
hget http://a-b.xyz/23/666a >/tmp/mountcwfs
chmod +x /tmp/mountcwfs
Override the mountcwfs stage using bind(1):
bind /tmp/mountcwfs /bin/inst/mountcwfs
Run inst/start and complete the stages up to preppart as you would
normally. At preppart, delete the default partitions and create one
named fsmain with a desired size:
d other
d fscache
d fsworm
a fsmain 123456 .+100%
w
q
Make sure to “ream” the new partition at the next step.
Complete the rest of the installation, reboot. That is all.
On long living installations or ones that hold a lot of larger files you may want to add a drive to WORM when it starts to fill up.
First, format the disk, if you are adding to a current install
you probably want one large plan9 partition containing a single fsworm
partition:
disk/mbr -m /386/mbr /dev/sdD0/data # If your using gpt I can't help you here
disk/fdisk -a /dev/sdD0/data # disk/edisk for gpt
# this will partition all unpartitioned space as a plan9 partition,
# if it looks correct type w to save and then q to quit
disk/prep -a fsworm /dev/sdD0/plan9
# this will create an fsworm partition w and q if it looks correct
Now reboot the computer and at bootargs start cwfs with -c to enter
configuration console. At the console enter a new configuration which
includes the newly created fsworm partition.
Note that device names are likely to be different in your case.
config: filsys main c(/dev/sdC0/fscache)((/dev/sdC0/fsworm)(/dev/sdD0/fsworm))
config: filsys dump o
config: end
After exiting the console the system should boot with the new partition added to the WORM. Run:
con -C /srv/cwfs.cmd
statw
to confirm. wsize * 16000 is the size of your WORM.
No refunds
These instructions assume you want to set up CWFS on two drives - one containing the cache filesystem, and the other containing the WORM.
This process has been tested on MBR installations, but should be extrapolable to GPT as well with minor changes (see end note if using GPT, please report the results).
For this example sd00 will be the cache drive, sd01 will be the
WORM.
Assuming your drives are new, for a MBR partitioning scheme, you want to first create a MBR partition table (skip in case of GPT):
disk/mbr -a /386/mbr /dev/sd00/data
disk/mbr -a /386/mbr /dev/sd01/data
You need to add a plan9 partition to both disks, otherwise the
installer will not see them (use disk/edisk in case of GPT):
disk/fdisk -baw /dev/sd00/data disk/fdisk -baw /dev/sd01/data
Now it is time to subdivide the plan9 partitions on both disks. We will then subpartition the cache, and worm disks:
disk/prep -bw -a^(9fat nvram other fscache) /dev/sd00/plan9
disk/prep -bw -a fsworm /dev/sd01/plan9
Start your installation as usual: select cwfs64x as your filesystem,
skip partdisk and prepdisk. When going through the mountfs step,
make sure to point to the right partitions on each function.
Create an encrypted bootable backup to an external USB drive