Matthew Wakeling wrote:
> On Fri, 13 Nov 2009, Greg Smith wrote:
> > In order for a drive to work reliably for database use such as for
> > PostgreSQL, it cannot have a volatile write cache. You either need a write
> > cache with a battery backup (and a UPS doesn't count), or to turn the cache
> > off. The SSD performance figures you've been looking at are with the
> > drive's
> > write cache turned on, which means they're completely fictitious and
> > exaggerated upwards for your purposes. In the real world, that will result
> > in database corruption after a crash one day.
>
> Seagate are claiming to be on the ball with this one.
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/08/seagate_pulsar_ssd/
I have updated our documentation to mention that even SSD drives often
have volatile write-back caches. Patch attached and applied.
--
Bruce Momjian <[email protected]> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com
PG East: http://www.enterprisedb.com/community/nav-pg-east-2010.do
+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +
Index: doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml
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--- doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml 20 Feb 2010 18:26:40 -0000
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*** 59,65 ****
same concerns about data loss exist for write-back drive caches as
exist for disk controller caches. Consumer-grade IDE and SATA drives are
particularly likely to have write-back caches that will not survive a
! power failure. To check write caching on <productname>Linux</> use
<command>hdparm -I</>; it is enabled if there is a <literal>*</> next
to <literal>Write cache</>; <command>hdparm -W</> to turn off
write caching. On <productname>FreeBSD</> use
--- 59,66 ----
same concerns about data loss exist for write-back drive caches as
exist for disk controller caches. Consumer-grade IDE and SATA drives are
particularly likely to have write-back caches that will not survive a
! power failure. Many solid-state drives also have volatile write-back
! caches. To check write caching on <productname>Linux</> use
<command>hdparm -I</>; it is enabled if there is a <literal>*</> next
to <literal>Write cache</>; <command>hdparm -W</> to turn off
write caching. On <productname>FreeBSD</> use
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