May 2014

==== Background ====

Setting the spool directory of the appropriate size and characteristics
is crucial for good performance. For guidance regarding the size see
[[projects:nbsp:articles:spooldb-slots.readme|Setting the spooldb_slots parameter]]. Here we give some hints for creating a high performance spool.

== FreeBSD ==

Use a zfs partition mounted on /var/noaaport/nbsp/spool.
The requirements are

  * 64 bit machine
  * 8 GB or more of Ram

The relevant commands are then

<code>
  # zpool create zpool0 da1 da2 da3
  # zfs create -o mountpoint=/var/noaaport/data -o atime=off \
    	zpool0/noaaport-data
  # zfs create -o mountpoint=/var/noaaport/nbsp/spool -o atime=off \
    	zpool0/noaaport-nbsp-spool
</code>

There is no limitation on the size of the spool with this setup (except
of course the total disk space).

== Debian ==

Use a tmpfs of the appropriate size mounted on /var/noaaport/nbsp/spool.
The size depends on the available Ram. As an example, we will set a
2 GB tmpfs spool.

Following the recommendation in
[[projects:nbsp:articles:spooldb-slots.readme|Setting the spooldb_slots parameter]], set in //nbspd.conf//

<code>
set spooldb_slots 32768
</code>

This would limit the spool average retention time to about 13 minutes
(assuming 2500 files/minute) and a size of about
1 GB (assuming 60 MB/min rate), which fit safely in 2 GB.

Then the following command creates the 2 GB tmpfs spool,

<code>
mount -t tmpfs -o size=2g tmpfs /var/noaaport/nbsp/spool
</code>

or alternatively in ///etc/fstab//

<code>
tmpfs /var/noaaport/nbsp/spool tmpfs  size=2G   0     0
</code>

== NOTE ==
      
After creating any of these file systems, the permissions/ownsership must
be set such that the nbsp user //noaaport:noaaport// can write
to them e.g.,

<code>
cd /var/noaaport/nbsp
chown noaaport:noaaport spool
</code>

See also [[projects:nbsp:articles:disk-setup.readme|Disk setup]].