On 12/17/2013 05:05 PM, Adam Jensen wrote:
If this performance difference is simply due to OpenBSD's architecture
and implementation methods - if it's a well engineered file-system - and
maximum performance was a lower priority goal than robustness and
reliability, then the lower performance isn't a big deal. However, if my
system is poorly tuned and if there is a mismatch between the software
and the hardware, that is something that needs serious consideration.
Please don't hesitate with any advice, recommendations, quandaries or
queries.
In an attempt to understand the problem, I ran a similar set of tests on
an i386 machine. While the file-system characteristics of OpenBSD and
FreeBSD are different, I can comfortably assume that, in this case
(i386), they are both utilizing the underlying hardware effectively.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
dd file-system characterization
------------------------------------------------------------------------
### OpenBSD-5.4 i386
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1k count=524288
536870912 bytes transferred in 4.412 secs (121674708 bytes/sec)
### FreeBSD-9.2 i386
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1k count=524288
536870912 bytes transferred in 5.128465 secs (104684524 bytes/sec)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
bonnie++ file-system characterization
------------------------------------------------------------------------
### OpenBSD-5.4 i386
------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
4G 291 100 122454 36 44439 14 461 99 126183 28 119.2 10
Latency 30223us 62654us 49224us 25027us 18430us 3439ms
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1659 10 +++++ +++ 3639 12 1741 11 +++++ +++ 2569 12
Latency 23736us 51us 20350us 27543us 159us 8780us
### FreeBSD-9.2 i386
------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
4G 197 99 124706 37 55326 19 416 99 130154 22 206.6 4
Latency 43718us 209ms 190ms 71722us 66112us 442ms
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 28559 83 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ 15712 65 +++++ +++ +++++ +++
Latency 92535us 65us 220us 97489us 519us 38us
------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, whether or not OpenBSD is effectively functioning and utilizing
the hardware on my Proliant with Smart Array machine is considerably
less clear. Does anyone have an amd64 capable machine that does not use
the ciss disk driver? (I do not). It might help in isolating the area of
the problem to perform similar file-system characterizations with both
OpenBSD and FreeBSD on such a machine. The performance problem that I
noticed might be an OpenBSD-amd64 issue, or it might be an OpenBSD-ciss
issue, or it might be an issue with my particular hardware. It would be
interesting to know which is the case.
