From owner-freebsd-performance@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 12 15:03:25 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3BAF316A4DE for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:03:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com (nf-out-0910.google.com [64.233.182.187]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9045C43D49 for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:03:24 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: by nf-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id g2so1426386nfe for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 08:03:23 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=rmlR92Np/bz6EgZsodqZ9H0KF5NsfVIA2BrDGK8JC2BaGFkPsx6Qv2/7vvqE88eDQw4yIdy/5CuttniCx0/TM7sQf2Ew3NdxmlJ/j7PzzKWPD1vuScUuGQibtd25DVEZ6tGs46OVTpAnnFOH0OZHEnVzP5yuE+mKSVYaRFHYe4U= Received: by 10.78.177.3 with SMTP id z3mr2610240hue; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 08:03:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.143.11 with HTTP; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 08:03:23 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:03:23 -0500 From: "Nikolas Britton" To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: VFS sysctl tuning X-BeenThere: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Performance/tuning List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:03:25 -0000 After reading man tuning it said to change vfs.hirunningspace to a larger value. What should I set it to? My RAID controller, an Areca ARC-1220, has a 256MB cache and each disk has 16MB of cache. What other vfs.* sysctls can I change? -- BSD Podcasts @: http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ http://freebsdforall.blogspot.com/ From owner-freebsd-performance@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 12 15:41:45 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F1BA16A4DF for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:41:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [209.31.154.42]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBD9243D64 for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:41:43 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [209.31.154.41]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BAC446C8D; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 11:41:43 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 16:41:43 +0100 (BST) From: Robert Watson X-X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Nikolas Britton In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060812164039.T45647@fledge.watson.org> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Subject: Re: VFS sysctl tuning X-BeenThere: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Performance/tuning List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:41:45 -0000 On Sat, 12 Aug 2006, Nikolas Britton wrote: > After reading man tuning it said to change vfs.hirunningspace to a larger > value. What should I set it to? > > My RAID controller, an Areca ARC-1220, has a 256MB cache and each disk has > 16MB of cache. > > What other vfs.* sysctls can I change? The default settings are "reasonable" for many common workloads. Further tuning generally should be done in the context of a specific workload, since tuning generally means trading off one type of performance or functionality for another. Only by knowing the workload can we talk about how to trade off what you need, and what you don't. Robert N M Watson Computer Laboratory University of Cambridge From owner-freebsd-performance@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 12 17:38:40 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19E0716A4E5 for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:38:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com (nf-out-0910.google.com [64.233.182.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E213243D45 for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:38:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: by nf-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id g2so1462193nfe for ; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:38:37 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=ZRDk1mi039WllKWm0Gy5AJl/qZWRoqg+n90c0EYJYZetV6W6bVhK9jovxDmjKFavhfJPf90Vjo+3PC3oWtwkNPs5IELmTR9WvEPsHq/neanTlfGVaCtMV3CYs0dRQLIqMeqSqCuW0nXdex7YSj6zH4Mh+wsEhVPFpqe1lX4ppSk= Received: by 10.78.164.13 with SMTP id m13mr2642014hue; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:38:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.143.11 with HTTP; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:38:37 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:38:37 -0500 From: "Nikolas Britton" To: "Robert Watson" In-Reply-To: <20060812164039.T45647@fledge.watson.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20060812164039.T45647@fledge.watson.org> Cc: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Subject: Re: VFS sysctl tuning X-BeenThere: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Performance/tuning List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:38:40 -0000 On 8/12/06, Robert Watson wrote: > On Sat, 12 Aug 2006, Nikolas Britton wrote: > > > After reading man tuning it said to change vfs.hirunningspace to a larger > > value. What should I set it to? > > > > My RAID controller, an Areca ARC-1220, has a 256MB cache and each disk has > > 16MB of cache. > > > > What other vfs.* sysctls can I change? > > The default settings are "reasonable" for many common workloads. Further > tuning generally should be done in the context of a specific workload, since > tuning generally means trading off one type of performance or functionality > for another. Only by knowing the workload can we talk about how to trade off > what you need, and what you don't. > Thanks Robert. It's a general purpose server but It's primary duty is serving files via Samba / NFS over GigE to workstations that are faster then it. We are typically working with hundreds of (new) ~16MB files on any given day. It currently has a single dual-core Xeon 5030 and 1GB of system ram. I plan on upgrading it to dual dual-core Xeon 51xx and maxing out the ram if FreeBSD ever gets Xen dom0 support so we can consolidate server equipment... Anyhow... I decided to script out the task of finding the right setting for the hirunningspace sysctl: #!/bin/csh sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=1048576 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_18.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=2097152 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_19.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=4194304 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_20.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=8388608 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_21.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=16777216 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_22.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=33554432 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_23.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=67108864 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_24.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=134217728 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_25.xls sysctl vfs.hirunningspace=268435456 iozone -a -g 1g -b ~/arc1220_26.xls -- BSD Podcasts @: http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ http://freebsdforall.blogspot.com/