Tuning my PC64 (heh!)

[Kirk Strauser]

At 2003-03-22T05:31:45Z, Kirk Strauser <kirk at strauser.com> writes:

> 2) I've installed a Tekram DC-390f U/W SCSI card, and two U/W drives: a 4GB
> IBM and a 9GB IBM.  Throughput is dismal, to say the least:

> bonnie++ on the 9GB:
>
> Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
> Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
> Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
> gopher.honeypo 300M     6  99  9349  94  4957  68    11  99 12079  96 235.7 106
> Latency              1586ms     145ms     138ms     803ms   13585us    1979ms
> Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
> gopher.honeypot.net -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
>               files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
>                  16    92  11  4292  99   155  12    83  10  4124  99   257  24
> Latency               488ms    1891us     262ms     364ms    2565us     257ms

I recently upgrade from 4.7-STABLE to 4.8-STABLE.  At the same time, I
switched from running my Etherexpress Pro 100 (fxp) NICs in polled mode from
interrupted mode, and removed "options HZ=1000" from my kernel.  The new
benchmarks are much more reasonable:


Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
gopher.honeypo 300M    11  99 14286  90  6779  54    19  99 19580  92 266.4  60
Latency               741ms   34686us     118ms     441ms   28710us    2597ms
Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
gopher.honeypot.net -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  1819  95  4697  91  3126  95  1544  77  5027  98  2512  88
Latency               213ms     252ms   51272us     375ms    1405us   17868us
1.93c,1.93c,gopher.honeypot.net,1,1050522814,300M,,11,99,14286,90,6779,54,19,99,19580,92,266.4,60,16,,,,,1819,95,4697,91,3126,95,1544,77,5027,98,2512,88,741ms,34686us,118ms,441ms,28710us,2597ms,213ms,252ms,51272us,375ms,1405us,17868us


No hardware upgrades of any kind were involved; just a little bit of
tuning.  I'm posting this to save future PC64 hobbyists a bit of trouble.
-- 
Kirk Strauser