Improving RAID performance with filesystem and RAID parameters
Optimum RAID
© Paul Moore, 123RF
You can improve performance up to 20% by using the right parameters when you configure the filesystems on your RAID devices.
Creating a software RAID using the Linux kernel is becoming easier and easier. With a call to mdadm and pvcreate, you can be well on your way to using LVM on top of a RAID 5 or RAID 10 device. In fact, the procedure for setting up a RAID system has gotten so simple that many users routinely click through the commands without too much consideration for how the various settings might affect performance.
When it comes to RAID, however, the default settings aren't always a prescription for optimum performance. As you will learn in this article, tailoring your filesystem parameters to the details of the RAID system can improve performance by up to 20%.
Lining up the RAID
Filesystems are deceptively complex pieces of software. At first, a filesystem might appear rather simple: Save a file and make sure you can get it back again. Unfortunately, even writing a small file presents issues, because the system caches data in many places along the way to the disk platter. The kernel maintains caches, your disk controller might have a small memory cache, and the drive itself has many megabytes of volatile cache. So, when a filesystem wants to make sure 100KB is really on the disk, a fairly complex and often slow operation takes place.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.