[Dovecot] Better to use a single large storage server or multiple smaller for mdbox?

[Ed W]

On 14/04/2012 04:48, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> On 4/13/2012 10:31 AM, Ed W wrote:
>
>> You mean those "answers" like:
>>      "you need to read 'those' articles again"
>>
>> Referring to some unknown and hard to find previous emails is not the
>> same as answering?
> No, referring to this:
>
> On 4/12/2012 5:58 AM, Ed W wrote:
>
>> The claim by ZFS/BTRFS authors and others is that data silently "bit
>> rots" on it's own.
> Is it not a correct assumption that you read this in articles?  If you
> read this in books, scrolls, or chiseled tablets, my apologies for
> assuming it was articles.
>

WHAT?!!  The original context was that you wanted me to learn some very 
specific thing that you accused me of misunderstanding, and then it 
turns out that the thing I'm supposed to learn comes from re-reading 
every email, every blog post, every video, every slashdot post, every 
wiki, every ... that mentions ZFS's reason for including end to end 
checksumming?!!

Please stop wasting our time and get specific

You have taken my email which contained a specific question, been asked 
of you multiple times now and yet you insist on only answering 
irrelevant details with a pointed and personal dig on each answer.  The 
rudeness is unnecessary, and your evasiveness of answers does not fill 
me with confidence that you actually know the answer...

For the benefit of anyone reading this via email archives or whatever, I 
think the conclusion we have reached is that: modern systems are now a) 
a complex sum of pieces, any of which can cause an error to be injected, 
b) the level of error correction which was originally specified as being 
sufficient is now starting to be reached in real systems, possibly even 
consumer systems.  There is no "solution", however, the first step is to 
enhance "detection".  Various solutions have been proposed, all increase 
cost, computation or have some disadvantage - however, one of the more 
promising detection mechanisms is an end to end checksum, which will 
then have the effect of augmenting ALL the steps in the chain, not just 
one specific step.  As of today, only a few filesystems offer this, roll 
on more adopting it

Regards

Ed W