Disk Access Seems Slow in 5.4
I have two boxes running FBSD. One is an old AMD 350 mhz machine with just 128 MB of RAM and a 4 GB IDE drive that's attached to a 33mhz controller. The other is a dual Pentium 600 machine with 768 MB RAM and two 9 GB SCSI drives. Ever since I upgraded the dual Pentium from 4.11 to 5.4, disk access seems slower. I can't know for sure because I never did any benchmarking before. I used vinum striping in 4.x but moved to gstripe in 5.4. I notice it most when using an IMAP client to connect to Courier on this 5.4 machine. So maybe it's just slow with small files? Here's my 'gstripe list' output so you can see how the stripe set is built: --- BEGIN --- blacklamb# gstripe list Geom name: data State: UP Status: Total=2, Online=2 Type: AUTOMATIC Stripesize: 131072 ID: 1477809630 Providers: 1. Name: stripe/data Mediasize: 17160732672 (16G) Sectorsize: 512 Mode: r1w1e0 Consumers: 1. Name: da1s1d Mediasize: 8580481024 (8.0G) Sectorsize: 512 Mode: r1w1e1 Number: 1 2. Name: da0s1d Mediasize: 8580481024 (8.0G) Sectorsize: 512 Mode: r1w1e1 Number: 0 --- END --- I really don't know what to check or how to go about checking it. I Googled and found that bonnie++ seems to be popular. Another is postmark. I installed these tools and ran them both on my 5.4 server with the SCSI drives and the 4.11 server with the slow 33mhz IDE drive in it. Using default settings, postmark shows the 5.4 box about 2 1/2 times slower than the 4.11 box. --- BEGIN 5.4 Box --- Creating files...Done Performing transactions..Done Deleting files...Done Time: 24 seconds total 9 seconds of transactions (55 per second) Files: 764 created (31 per second) Creation alone: 500 files (100 per second) Mixed with transactions: 264 files (29 per second) 243 read (27 per second) 257 appended (28 per second) 764 deleted (31 per second) Deletion alone: 528 files (52 per second) Mixed with transactions: 236 files (26 per second) Data: 1.36 megabytes read (58.22 kilobytes per second) 4.45 megabytes written (189.70 kilobytes per second) --- END 5.4 Box --- --- BEGIN 4.11 Box --- pm>run Creating files...Done Performing transactions..Done Deleting files...Done Time: 10 seconds total 4 seconds of transactions (125 per second) Files: 764 created (76 per second) Creation alone: 500 files (100 per second) Mixed with transactions: 264 files (66 per second) 243 read (60 per second) 257 appended (64 per second) 764 deleted (76 per second) Deletion alone: 528 files (528 per second) Mixed with transactions: 236 files (59 per second) Data: 1.36 megabytes read (139.72 kilobytes per second) 4.45 megabytes written (455.28 kilobytes per second) --- END 4.11 Box --- I also ran bonnie++ on both boxes Here's ouput from the 5.4 box Version 1.93c --Sequential Output-- --Sequential Input- --Random- Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- MachineSize K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP blacklamb 300M39 99 9115 18 8273 20 107 99 112354 99 2306 207 Latency 329ms 129ms 314ms 150ms1557us 2365ms Version 1.93c --Sequential Create-- Random Create blacklamb -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 1675 3 19237 99 116 375 3 19069 99 185 6 Latency 384ms 212us 260ms 209ms 662us 464ms And here's from the 4.11 box: Version 1.93c --Sequential Output-- --Sequential Input- --Random- Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- MachineSize K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP blacksheep 300M47 96 4262 8 1954 5 101 96 4442 5 68.2 5 Latency 705ms 532ms 442ms 265ms 291ms 9196ms Version 1.93c --Sequential Create-- Random Create blacksheep -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 3806 62 12911 78 9469 91 3644 57 15577 99 2940 29 Latency 342ms 13128us 658us 247ms 644us 714ms I don't really know what all of this means. However the 4.11 box finished both tests much faster than the 5.4 box. Thus it seems I have a drive performance issue. What should I do to improve performance on the 5.4 box? I'm getting ready to upgrade to 6.0 and see this as an opportunity to modify the disk parameters if needed. Thanks, Drew -- Visit The Alchemist's Wareho
Disk Access Seems Slow in 5.4
I have two boxes running FBSD. One is an old AMD 350 mhz machine with just 128 MB of RAM and a 4 GB IDE drive that's attached to a 33mhz controller. The other is a dual Pentium 600 machine with 768 MB RAM and two 9 GB SCSI drives. Ever since I upgraded the dual Pentium from 4.11 to 5.4, disk access seems slower. I can't know for sure because I never did any benchmarking before. I used vinum striping in 4.x but moved to gstripe in 5.4. I notice it most when using an IMAP client to connect to Courier on this 5.4 machine. So maybe it's just slow with small files? Here's my 'gstripe list' output so you can see how the stripe set is built: --- BEGIN --- blacklamb# gstripe list Geom name: data State: UP Status: Total=2, Online=2 Type: AUTOMATIC Stripesize: 131072 ID: 1477809630 Providers: 1. Name: stripe/data Mediasize: 17160732672 (16G) Sectorsize: 512 Mode: r1w1e0 Consumers: 1. Name: da1s1d Mediasize: 8580481024 (8.0G) Sectorsize: 512 Mode: r1w1e1 Number: 1 2. Name: da0s1d Mediasize: 8580481024 (8.0G) Sectorsize: 512 Mode: r1w1e1 Number: 0 --- END --- I really don't know what to check or how to go about checking it. I Googled and found that bonnie++ seems to be popular. Another is postmark. I installed these tools and ran them both on my 5.4 server with the SCSI drives and the 4.11 server with the slow 33mhz IDE drive in it. Using default settings, postmark shows the 5.4 box about 2 1/2 times slower than the 4.11 box. --- BEGIN 5.4 Box --- Creating files...Done Performing transactions..Done Deleting files...Done Time: 24 seconds total 9 seconds of transactions (55 per second) Files: 764 created (31 per second) Creation alone: 500 files (100 per second) Mixed with transactions: 264 files (29 per second) 243 read (27 per second) 257 appended (28 per second) 764 deleted (31 per second) Deletion alone: 528 files (52 per second) Mixed with transactions: 236 files (26 per second) Data: 1.36 megabytes read (58.22 kilobytes per second) 4.45 megabytes written (189.70 kilobytes per second) --- END 5.4 Box --- --- BEGIN 4.11 Box --- pm>run Creating files...Done Performing transactions..Done Deleting files...Done Time: 10 seconds total 4 seconds of transactions (125 per second) Files: 764 created (76 per second) Creation alone: 500 files (100 per second) Mixed with transactions: 264 files (66 per second) 243 read (60 per second) 257 appended (64 per second) 764 deleted (76 per second) Deletion alone: 528 files (528 per second) Mixed with transactions: 236 files (59 per second) Data: 1.36 megabytes read (139.72 kilobytes per second) 4.45 megabytes written (455.28 kilobytes per second) --- END 4.11 Box --- I also ran bonnie++ on both boxes Here's ouput from the 5.4 box Version 1.93c --Sequential Output-- --Sequential Input- --Random- Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- MachineSize K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP blacklamb 300M39 99 9115 18 8273 20 107 99 112354 99 2306 207 Latency 329ms 129ms 314ms 150ms1557us 2365ms Version 1.93c --Sequential Create-- Random Create blacklamb -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 1675 3 19237 99 116 375 3 19069 99 185 6 Latency 384ms 212us 260ms 209ms 662us 464ms And here's from the 4.11 box: Version 1.93c --Sequential Output-- --Sequential Input- --Random- Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- MachineSize K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP blacksheep 300M47 96 4262 8 1954 5 101 96 4442 5 68.2 5 Latency 705ms 532ms 442ms 265ms 291ms 9196ms Version 1.93c --Sequential Create-- Random Create blacksheep -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 3806 62 12911 78 9469 91 3644 57 15577 99 2940 29 Latency 342ms 13128us 658us 247ms 644us 714ms I don't really know what all of this means. However the 4.11 box finished both tests much faster than the 5.4 box. Thus it seems I have a drive performance issue. What should I do to improve performance on the 5.4 box? I'm getting ready to upgrade to 6.0 and see this as an opportunity to modify the disk parameters if needed. Thanks,
