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Date:      Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:03:46 +0100
From:      Alexander Leidinger <Alexander@Leidinger.net>
To:        Cheffo <cheffo@FreeBSD-BG.org>
Cc:        freebsd-performance@freebsd.org, "O. Hartmann" <ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
Subject:   Re: (S)ATA performance in FBSD 6.2/7.0
Message-ID:  <20070302130346.1ipa5epugws4scgw@webmail.leidinger.net>
In-Reply-To: <45E80CC5.8080607@FreeBSD-BG.org>
References:  <45E7F09B.7070005@zedat.fu-berlin.de> <00c401c75caf$89ee3370$3c01a8c0@coolf89ea26645> <45E80CC5.8080607@FreeBSD-BG.org>

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Quoting Cheffo <cheffo@FreeBSD-BG.org> (from Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:38:45 +0200=
):

> Hi,
>
>
> Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "O. Hartmann"  =20
>> <ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de>
>> To: <freebsd-performance@freebsd.org>; <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
>> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 1:38 AM
>> Subject: (S)ATA performance in FBSD 6.2/7.0
>>> The last days I tried to figure out why some of my lab's FreeBSD  =20
>>> boxes and also mine at home seem to be outperformed by some Linux  =20
>>> setups around here and I saw something interesting.
>>>
>>
>> blah blah blah deleted
>>
>>> Before digging into this problem deeper with benchmarks, could  =20
>>> anyone explain why FreeBSD reaches this 33 MB/s limit (sounds like =20
>>>  UDMA 33
>>
>> man mount
>>
>> read section on "async"
>>
>> linux by default mounts async
>>
>> freebsd by default mounts sync
>>
>> you can change FBSD to async
>>
>> then watch your fs scramble during a power failure
>>
>> no big deal, it's only your data.
>>
>> Ted
>
> If SYNC is default how can you explain this:
>
> [12:58]root@hater:~# mount
> /dev/ad4s3a on / (ufs, local, synchronous)
> devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
> /dev/ad4s3d on /tmp (ufs, local, soft-updates)
> /dev/ad4s3f on /usr (ufs, local, soft-updates)
> /dev/ad4s3e on /var (ufs, local, soft-updates)
[...]
> So I'm pretty sure that for type ufs async is default.

Both of you are wrong. By default "noasync" is used. This is different =20
from sync and async. Feel free to look up the difference.

> Also I do not see why sync should report different speeds for copy and
> benchmark tools if they do the same thing?

Because cp may behave differently than the tools used to benchmark. A =20
dd may be more portable in this case.

> Just to be sure I added to my /tmp entry async in /etc/fstab:
> /dev/ad4s3d             /tmp            ufs     rw,async     2       2
>
> umounted and mounted again and still have:
> /dev/ad4s3d on /tmp (ufs, local, soft-updates)

IIRC when SU is used, async is not used even if specified. But I' not =20
sure about this.


Asides from the linux async-by-default there's maybe also the =20
write-cache-off penalty in FreeBSD. But I'm not sure it is off by =20
default. I disable the WC myself in loader.conf everywhere to be on =20
the safe side and I don't feel like experimenting ATM (I'm ill in bed).

If the same conditions are tested in FreeBSD and linux (which is not =20
easy, as we don't share a common FS implementation, even when we =20
support the same FS type) and the sync/async and WC related stuff can =20
be ruled out, it may be a problem in the (S)ATA code and it would be =20
nice if we would know about this. So please dig deeper into this (it =20
can also be a problem with our cp or GEOM or whatever).

Bye,
Alexander.

--=20
  "I heard one time you single-handedly defeated a hoard of rampaging of
somethings in the something something system." -Fry

http://www.Leidinger.net    Alexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID =3D B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org       netchild @ FreeBSD.org  : PGP ID =3D 72077137



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