Chapter 5: Tuning I/O resources

Table of contents

• Chapter 5: Tuning I/O resources
  • Subsystems that affect disk and other I/O
  • How the buffer cache works
    • Viewing buffer cache activity
    • Increasing disk I/O throughput by increasing the buffer cache size
    • Positioning the buffer cache in memory
    • Tuning the number of buffer cache hash queues
  • How the namei cache works
    • Viewing namei cache activity
    • Reducing disk I/O by increasing the size of the namei cache
  • How multiphysical buffers are used
    • Tuning the number of multiphysical buffers
  • The mechanics of a disk transfer
    • Viewing disk and other block I/O activity
    • Identifying disk I/O-bound systems
    • Tuning disk I/O-bound systems
    • SCSI disk driver request queue
    • Tuning the number of SCSI disk request blocks
    • Filesystem factors affecting disk performance
  • Overcoming performance limitations of hard disks
  • Tuning virtual disk performance
    • Performance considerations for RAID 4 and 5
    • Choosing a cluster size
    • Balancing disk load in virtual disk arrays
    • Tuning virtual disk kernel parameters
  • Serial device resources
    • Tuning serial device resources
    • Configuring your system for high-speed modems
  • Case study: I/O-bound multiuser system
  • Case study: unbalanced disk activity on a database server