From: Eric Sandeen Subject: Re: ext4 benchmark questions Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:20:47 -0500 Message-ID: <4BD0CBBF.1060300@redhat.com> References: <4BD0C50A.5050508@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org To: Steve Brown Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:49539 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751689Ab0DVWUy (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:20:54 -0400 In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-ext4-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Steve Brown wrote: >>> I'll start with the craziest one: noatime. Everything I have read >>> says that the noatime option should increase both read and write >>> performance. My results are finding that write speeds are comparable >>> with or without this option, but read speeds are significantly faster >>> *without* the noatime option. For example, a 16GB file reads about >>> 210MB/s with noatime but reads closer to 250MB/s without the noatime >>> option. >> the kernel uses "relatime" now by default, which gives you most of the >> benefit already. > > So should I see any performance change by using the noatime mount option at all? they are not exactly the same thing, so noatime may be -slightly- faster in some cases than relatime. >>> Next is the write barrier. I'm an in a fully battery-backed >>> environment, so I'm not worried about disabling it. From my testing, >>> setting barrier=0 will improve write performance on large files >>> (>10GB), but hurts performance on smaller files (<10GB). Read >>> performance is effected similarly. Is this to be expected with files >>> of this size? >> not expected by me; barriers == drive write cache flushes, which I >> would never expect to speed things up... > > hmmm... this would seem to conflict with the docs in the kernel, especially: > > "Write barriers enforce proper on-disk ordering > of journal commits, making volatile disk write caches > safe to use, at some performance penalty. If > your disks are battery-backed in one way or another, > disabling barriers may safely improve performance." what you saw is in conflict with what is expected, yes; I don't know why barriers would ever increase performance. (my description of barriers as drive write caches isn't in conflict with the docs, I just said how they're implemented) >>> Next is the data option. I am seeing a significant increase in read >>> performance when using data=ordered vs data=writeback. Reading is as >>> much as 20% faster when using data=ordered. The difference in write >>> performance is almost none with this option. >> data=writeback is not safe for data integrity; unless you can handle >> scrambled files post-crash/powerloss, don't use it. > > I'm not worried about powerloss. The kernel docs seem to imply that > data=[journaled,ordered] come with a performance hit. My results > would indicate otherwise. Should I be seeing this kinda of > performance difference? Sorry, I misread... I also don't know why reading would be much affected at all by the journalling mode, which journals -writes- (reading can update metadata, but not much, esp. if you have noatime/relatime). -Eric >>> Finally is the commit option. I did my testing mounting with commit=5 >>> and commit=90. While my read performance increased with commit=90, my >>> write performance improved by as much as 30% or more with commit=5. >> not sure offhand what to make of decreased write performance with a longer >> commit time... > > Steve > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ext4" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html