linux-kernel - Re: [RESEND] [PATCH] readahead:add blk_run_backing

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Date:	Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:15:51 -0400
From:	"Alan D. Brunelle" <adbrunelle@...il.com>
To:	Hisashi Hifumi <hifumi.hisashi@....ntt.co.jp>
CC:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RESEND] [PATCH] readahead:add blk_run_backing_dev

Hisashi Hifumi wrote:
> At 09:36 09/06/01, Andrew Morton wrote:
>> On Fri, 29 May 2009 14:35:55 +0900 Hisashi Hifumi 
>> <hifumi.hisashi@....ntt.co.jp> wrote:
>>
>>> I added blk_run_backing_dev on page_cache_async_readahead
>>> so readahead I/O is unpluged to improve throughput on 
>>> especially RAID environment. 
>> I skipped the last version of this because KOSAKI Motohiro
>> <kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com> said "Please attach blktrace analysis ;)".
>>
>> I'm not sure why he asked for that, but he's a smart chap and
>> presumably had his reasons.
>>
>> If you think that such an analysis is unneeded, or isn't worth the time
>> to generate then please tell us that.  But please don't just ignore the
>> request!
> 
> Hi Andrew.
> 
> Sorry for this.
> 
> I did not ignore KOSAKI Motohiro's request.
> I've got blktrace output for both with and without the patch, 
> but I just did not clarify the reason for throuput improvement
> from this result.
> 
> I do not notice any difference except around unplug behavior by dd.
> Comments?

Pardon my ignorance on the global issues concerning the patch, but 
specifically looking at the traces generated by blktrace leads one to 
also note that the patched version may generate inefficiencies in other 
places in the kernel by reducing the merging going on. In the unpatched 
version it looks like (generally) that two incoming bio's are able to be 
merged to generate a single I/O request. In the patched version - 
because of the quicker unplug(?) - no such merging is going on. This 
leads to more work lower in the stack (twice as many I/O operations 
being managed), perhaps increased interrupts & handling &c. [This may be 
acceptable if the goal is to decrease latencies on a per-bio basis...]

Do you have a place where the raw blktrace data can be retrieved for 
more in-depth analysis?

Regards,
Alan D. Brunelle
Hewlett-Packard
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