----- Original Message ----- > From: "Oleksandr Natalenko" <oleksa...@natalenko.name> > To: gluster-devel@gluster.org > Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 7:37:51 PM > Subject: [Gluster-devel] GlusterFS cache architecture > > Hello. > > I'm trying to investigate how GlusterFS manages cache on both server and > client side, but unfortunately cannot find any exhaustive, appropriate > and up > to date information. > > The disposition is that we have, saying, 2 GlusterFS nodes (server_a and > server_b) with replicated volume some_volume. Also we have several > clients > (saying client_1 and client_2) that mount some_volume and do some > manipulation > with files on it (lets assume some_volume contains web-related assets, > and > client_1/client_2 are web-servers). Also there is client_3 that does > web- > related deploying on some_volume (lets assume that client_3 is > web-developer). > > We would like to use multilayered cache scheme that involves filesystem > cache > (on both client/server sides) as well as web server cache. > > So, my questions are: > > 1) does caching-related items (performance.cache-size, > performance.cache-min- > file-size, performance.cache-max-file-size etc.) affect server side > only?
Actually, caching is on the client side (this caching aims to beat network and disk latency to add up into our fop - file operation - latency). There is no server side caching in glusterfs as of now (except for what ever caching underlying OS/drivers provide in backend). > 2) are there any tunables that affect client side caching? Yes. Basic tunables one need to be aware of are the ones affecting cache-sizes. There are some tunables which define glusterfs behaviour for better/lesser consistency (with a possible trade-off of performance). These consistency related tunables are mostly (but not limited to) in write-behind (like strict-ordering, flush-behind etc). There are various timeouts in each xlator that can be configured to tune cache-coherency. "gluster volume set help" should give you a starting point. > 3) how client-side caching (we are talking about read cache only, write > cache > is not interesting to us) is performed (if it is at all)? client side read-caching is done across multiple xlators: 1. read-ahead: to boost performance during sequential reads. We read "ahead" of the application, so that data can be in our read-cache by the time application requests it. 2. io-cache: to boost performance if application "re-reads" same region of file. We cache after application has requested some data, so that subsequent accesses are served from io-cache. 3. quick-read (in conjunction with open-behind): to boost reads on small files. Quick read caches the entire file during lookup. Any further opens are "faked" by open-behind, assuming that the application is doing open solely to read the file (which is anyways cached already). If the application does a different fop, then an fd is opened and fop is performed after successful open. Quick read aims to save time spent in open, multiple reads and a release over network. 4. md-cache (or stat-prefetch): Caches metadata (like iatt - gluster equivalent of stat, user xattrs etc). 5. readdir-ahead: similar to read-ahead, but for directory entries during readdir. This helps to boost performance of readdir. > 4) how and in what cases client cache is discarded (and how that relates > to > upcall framework)? As of now read-cache is discarded based on the availability of free space in cache and timeouts (age of data in cache). Currently upcall is not used to address cache-coherency issues, but can be used in future. > > Ideally, there should be some documentation that covers general > GlusterFS > cache workflow. > > Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. > > -- > Oleksandr post-factum Natalenko, MSc > pf-kernel community > https://natalenko.name/ > _______________________________________________ > Gluster-devel mailing list > Gluster-devel@gluster.org > http://www.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-devel > _______________________________________________ Gluster-devel mailing list Gluster-devel@gluster.org http://www.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-devel
