Linux – Do I need to restart the server after editing fstab and mtab

awstatsfstablinuxubuntu-12.04

I'm just wondering if I need to restart my server after editing fstab and mtab. I changed something in this file manually due to problem with awstats report.

I am using ISPConfig 3 with the help of the tutorial from howtoforge. But due to removing/deleting of some account, the configuration of fstab and mtab messed up.

I also ask this question at howtoforge forum but until now no one has answered. If you'd like to read my question please visit it here.

I tried very hard to fix the problem w/o luck.

Update:

Here's what happen to my fstab:

Before the value was (I omitted the other):

/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/mydomain.com /var/www/clients/client1/web1/log    none    bind,nobootwait    0 0
/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/example.com /var/www/clients/client1/web2/log    none    bind,nobootwait    0 0

So I changed it to the correct path:

/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/mydomain.com /var/www/clients/client1/web2/log    none    bind,nobootwait    0 0
/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/example.com /var/www/clients/client1/web3/log    none    bind,nobootwait    0 0

I also found mtab to have the same value as above that's why I edited it manually.

from:

/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/mydomain.com /var/www/clients/client1/web1/log none rw,bind 0 0
/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/example.com /var/www/clients/client1/web2/log none rw,bind 0 0

to:

/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/mydomain.com /var/www/clients/client1/web2/log none rw,bind 0 0
/var/log/ispconfig/httpd/example.com /var/www/clients/client1/web3/log none rw,bind 0 0

I edited those value because the correct path of mydomain.com and example.com should be under web2 and web3 folder respectively.

As of now the log of example.com is pointed to:

/var/www/clients/client1/web2/log

when it should be:

/var/www/clients/client1/web3/log

So I am thinking that this is because of fstab and mtab.

Please guide me how to point the log correctly to it's default directory.

I explain the scenario one by one at this link.

Best Answer

File /etc/mtab is maintained by the operating system. Don't edit it.

File /etc/fstab defines what should be mounted. It is read at system start.

When I add an extra disk to a system that should be mounted at system start I add it to /etc/fstab.

To check the correctness of the updated /etc/fstab I use the command mount -a. That reads /etc/fstab as system start, it mounts filesytems that aren'nt yet mounted.

It gives an error when the mountpoint is missing or the device is missing.

To answer the question on rebooting: No, there is no need to reboot after editing /etc/fstab. You can testdrive with mount -a

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Having said that, to see what's happening you'll need something that can monitor and log resource usage. I like to use a program called atop. Atop is a lot like the top program but it also takes a snapshot of resource usage at defined intervals. It's pretty simple to install.

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tar -zxvf atop-1.23.tar.gz
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Run the command /etc/atop/atop.daily from a command prompt to start it. Wait a few minutes and run atop -r /var/log/atop/atop_20091118 with the correct date of course.

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If this is the case, I recommend looking at you're MaxClients setting in httpd.conf. If set too high, apache will gladly eat all of your memory causing your machine to crash. Apache/php can easily eat 40-50MB/process. If you multiply 40mb x MaxClients you'll get a rough idea of how much memory apache can potentially use. MaxClients usually defaults to 150 on CentOS so apache can potentially use 6GB of memory by default. This doesn't include memory your system needs for itself and other processes to run. Try setting it to a more realistic value based on the amount of memory you have like 40 if you have 2G of memory and see if that helps. Also if you have KeepAlive On, set KeepAliveTimeout to a low number like 2 or 3.

In my opinion CentOS's apache/php compilation is a real pos that should never have seen the light of day. It's buggy and crash prone. If you run a serious site, I highly recommend compiling your own version of apache/php or even using one of the newer high performance webservers like lighttpd or nginx with fgci php.

Store Authentication Information Outside of fstab for CIFS Mounting

From the mount.cifs manpage:

credentials=filename
    specifies a file that contains a username and/or password. The format of the file is:

                         username=value
                         password=value
   This is preferred over having passwords in plaintext in a shared file, such as /etc/fstab. Be sure to protect any credentials file properly.

Best Answer

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