Subj : Speed boost w/NOATIME
To   : ALL
From : Brad Laue
Date : Mon Apr 16 2001 06:21 am

Hello ALL!

Little experience of mine, I repartitioned my system over the long weekend, in 
order
to make separate partitions for /var, /tmp, /usr/src, and /usr/ports.

As you know, the key to a fast filesystem is keeping the operating system from 
writing
to the disk as much as possible. Soft-updates (if you don't have this enabled, 
you're
missing out), BSD's method of synchronizing metadata on the filesystem, is one 
way to
go about this - but other options can have a similar impact on performance.

One of these mount options is 'noatime'. When a filesystem is mounted noatime, 
the OS
no longer records the last access time of any given file, eliminating the need 
for a 
write to the disk with every file access. Modification/creation times are still 
recorded.

On a partition with large files, this will not have much impact, and in 
high-security
situations, can be undesirable; but there are partitions on which a significant 
number
of small files are placed; mail/news servers, and http proxies alike, place a 
lot of
emphasis on small files in /var, for example.

I currently have /usr/src, /usr/ports, /var, and /tmp mounted with both 
soft-updates and 
noatime, and the boost is noticeable. Try it!

--- Msged/BSD TE 06 (pre)
 * Origin: TMA-1.brad-x.com/www.brad-x.com (1:229/605)

.