From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 8 14:48:12 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CAFAA16A4CF for ; Mon, 8 Dec 2003 14:48:12 -0800 (PST) Received: from freshaire.wiz.com (freshaire.wiz.com [66.143.183.129]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7CCEA43D28 for ; Mon, 8 Dec 2003 14:48:11 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from marc@wiz.com) Received: from freshaire.wiz.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freshaire.wiz.com (8.12.9p2/8.12.6) with ESMTP id hB8MmAdV012835 for ; Mon, 8 Dec 2003 16:48:10 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from marc@freshaire.wiz.com) Received: (from marc@localhost) by freshaire.wiz.com (8.12.9p2/8.12.9/Submit) id hB8MmAUh012834 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 8 Dec 2003 16:48:10 -0600 (CST) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 16:48:10 -0600 From: Marc Wiz To: FreeBSD Questions Message-ID: <20031208224810.GM10362@wiz.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Subject: Re: dump performance - 4.6-RELEASE #0 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 22:48:12 -0000 On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 06:03:50PM +1000, Kevin Fleming wrote: > > I've done numerous tests with dump and different buffer sizes etc, but the > maximum speed I can read from disk is approximately 14MB/s (measured by > iostat). > > cpio / tar etc can read from disk at over 30MB/s .. > > Dump seems to spawn children (presumably for better IO) - is it possible to > tweak the number of children for better IO performance. > > I can write to my tape unit at a sustained 25MB/s (AIT-3 on an LVD > interface), so I'm wasting tape and time. Kevin, try adding the following parameters -C 32 -b 60 to the dump command line. The 60 for the -b option was suggested to me by the dump maintainer. The 32 is 32 megabytes for the cache size. I have 256 MB of memory so I figured 32 was good for me. If you have more memory you might want to experiment with a higher cache size. Also make sure you RTFM the dump man page. I don't know if either parameter is in the release you are running. You might also want to consider piping the output of dump to dd and then to the tape. There has been plenty of discussions on many mailing lists about speeding up dump with dd. Marc -- Marc Wiz marc@wiz.com Yes, that really is my last name.