Bcache Testing: Throughput

“In a previous article I presented two new patch concepts
(bcache and flashcache) for improving performance but using SSD’s
as a caching mechanism for hard drives. In reality the caching is
achieved by using a block device to cache another block device, but
practically it’s using an SSD to cache hard drives. I’ve been
waiting for some time for a patch that increases performance by
using a cache that is larger than the disk cache and faster than
the disk. SSD’s fit that bill pretty well, especially given their
fantastic read performance compared to disks.

“This article series tests these patches against some common
benchmarks to discover if they can actually improve performance.
But before you get your hopes up too high, these patches are still
in early development so performance could be all over the map. Just
like any patch in the kernel, it takes time to test them, tune
them, and integrate them into the kernel. But we can help the
developers by testing, which is precisely what this article
does.”

Complete
Story