Re: Strange behavior: pgbench and new Linux kernels

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008, Greg Smith wrote:
> So in the case of this simple benchmark, I see an enormous performance 
> regression from the newest Linux kernel compared to a much older one.  I
need 
> to do some version bisection to nail it down for sure, but my guess is
it's 
> the change to the Completely Fair Scheduler in 2.6.23 that's to blame.

That's a bit sad. From Do***entation/sched-design-CFS.txt (2.6.23):

>                                                  There is only one
>   central tunable (you have to switch on CONFIG_SCHED_DEBUG):
>
>         /proc/sys/kernel/sched_granularity_ns
>
>   which can be used to tune the scheduler from 'desktop' (low
>   latencies) to 'server' (good batching) workloads. It defaults to a
>   setting suitable for desktop workloads. SCHED_BATCH is handled by the
>   CFS scheduler module too.

So it'd be worth compiling a kernel with CONFIG_SCHED_DEBUG switched on 
and try increasing that value, and see if that fixes the problem. 
Alternatively, use sched_setscheduler to set SCHED_BATCH, which should 
increase the timeslice (a Linux-only option).

Matthew

-- 
Psychotics are consistently inconsistent. The essence of sanity is to
be inconsistently inconsistent.

-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance