Evaluating the performance of ext3 using write barriers and write caching
The ext3 filesystem supports write barriers which are designed to allow a filesystem to take advantage of a disk’s write cache without fear of compromising the ingetrity of the filesystem on a power failure or kernel panic. I’ve seen reports that ext3 write barriers have a significant impact on performance.
Of course, the alternative is to disable the write cache (as is recommended many places) and suffer the performance loss from that. Given that the use of write barriers means forsaking many Linux storage tools which do not support write barriers (lvm, dmraid, dmcrypt, md raid except raid1, etc) it seems like the best option for flexibility is to just turn off the hard disks write cache and keep one’s options open. However, if the difference in performance between write barriers enabled and write cache disabled is significant then using write barriers would be a better option when IO performance is important. I often find IO to be the bottleneck on my servers so any improvement in IO performance is worth investigating.
I ran some tests with bonnie++ and came up with these numbers.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- 1277 reads
- PDF version
More in Tux Machines
- Highlights
- Front Page
- Latest Headlines
- Archive
- Recent comments
- All-Time Popular Stories
- Hot Topics
- New Members
digiKam 7.7.0 is releasedAfter three months of active maintenance and another bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.7.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release. |
Dilution and Misuse of the "Linux" Brand
|
Samsung, Red Hat to Work on Linux Drivers for Future TechThe metaverse is expected to uproot system design as we know it, and Samsung is one of many hardware vendors re-imagining data center infrastructure in preparation for a parallel 3D world. Samsung is working on new memory technologies that provide faster bandwidth inside hardware for data to travel between CPUs, storage and other computing resources. The company also announced it was partnering with Red Hat to ensure these technologies have Linux compatibility. |
today's howtos
|
Recent comments
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago