Understanding SolarisTM Filesystems and Paging

This trio of papers was prepared for publication in September of 1996 when the author was a member of the Desknet group in Sun Microsystems Laboratories. He is presently in the Solaris Products group. Tuning Solaris UFS Bandwidth The purpose of this paper is to provide general tuning guidelines for getting the best bandwidth possible from large files using Solaris UFS. Information on filesystem parameters, system variables, device and striping configurations, application changes, and I/O test programs is provided. Understanding the Solaris VM Paging System The goal of this paper is to give a basic introduction to the Solaris virtual memory paging algorithms. The information presented here provides a basis for system tuning experiments and understanding pagingrelated performance problems; however, this sketch is meant only as a starting point. Trends in Single-Host Filesystems Technology This paper discusses alternatives in single-host filesystems. Its purpose is to show how technology trends have changed design tradeoffs and made obsolete many assumptions in older filesystems. Examples of current filesystems are compared to show relative strengths and weaknesses, as well as inherent architectural limitations. email address: [email protected] © 1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. The SML Technical Report Series is published by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Printed in U.S.A. Unlimited copying without fee is permitted provided that the copies are not made nor distributed for direct commercial advantage, and credit to the source is given. Otherwise, no part of this work covered by copyright hereon may be reproduced in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or storage in an information retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. TRADEMARKS Sun, Sun Microsystems, Solaris,and the Sun logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. For information regarding the SML Technical Report Series, contact Jeanie Treichel, Editor-in-Chief . Tuning SolarisTM UFS Bandwidth