linux-ext4 - Re: [PATCH 1/2] mbcache: Remove unused features

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Date:	Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:07:40 +0200
From:	Andreas Gruenbacher <agruen@...e.de>
To:	Andreas Dilger <adilger@...ger.ca>
Cc:	"linux-ext4" <linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org>,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] mbcache: Remove unused features

>From https://bugzilla.lustre.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22771#c24 :
> On our production system, the hash table contain 64 entries (6 bits) for a
> cache of 2307267 entries.
> A count in each list give a good load balance : number of entries vary
> between 35782 to 36496 while the optimal repartition is 2307267 / 64 =
> 36051.

Hehe, I like that sense of humor :)

On Thursday 22 July 2010 01:18:39 Andreas Dilger wrote:
> Is it possible to allow mbcache to be disabled, either for the whole
> kernel, on a per-filesystem basis, or adaptively if the cache hit rate is
> very low (any of these is fine, not all of them).

We could do that, but making the cache not degrade so badly would be a good 
idea in any case.  The number of buckets is currently fixed for ext[234] so it 
would make sense to either make that number dynamic or limit the maximum 
number of cache entries.  The latter will probably be good enough for most 
workloads.

> Attached is a patch that allows manually disabling mbcache on a
> per-filesystem basis with a mount option.

> I don't think fixing the mbcache to be more efficient (more buckets, more
> locks, etc) is really solving the problem which is that mbcache is adding
> overhead without value in these situations.

A mount option would be very ugly, but a kernel internal NO_MBCACHE flag 
sounds more acceptable to me.

> Better would be to
> automatically disable it if e.g. some hundreds or thousands of objects
> were inserted into the cache and there was < 1% cache hit rate.

This assumes that the workload won't change.

> That would help everyone, even those people who don't know they have a
> problem.

People who don't know they have a problem would also be helped by making the 
cache not degrade so badly, right?

Even better would be to use a more appropriate inode size, but you've pointed 
that out in the bug already.

Thanks,
Andreas
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