Re: fsync on ext4 does not work

On 12/19/2011 10:52 AM, Havasvölgyi Ottó wrote:
> PgSql 9.1.2
> Debian, 2.6.32 kernel
> WAL filesystem: ext4 with defaults

There's a pg_test_fsync program included with the postgresql-contrib
package that might help you sort out what's going on here.  This will
eliminate the possibility that you're doing something wrong with
pgbench, and give an easy to interpret number relative to the drive RPM
rate.

You said default settings, which eliminated "nobarrier" as a cause
here.  The only other thing I know of that can screw up fsync here is
using one of the incompatible LVM features to build your filesystem.  I
don't know which currently work and don't work, but last I checked there
were a few ways you could set LVM up that would eliminate filesystem
barriers from working properly.  You might check:

dmesg | grep barrier

To see if you have any kernel messages related to this.

Here's a pg_test_fsync example from a Debian system on 2.6.32 with ext4
filesystem and 7200 RPM drive, default mount parameters and no LVM:

$ ./pg_test_fsync
2000 operations per test
O_DIRECT supported on this platform for open_datasync and open_sync.

Compare file sync methods using one 8kB write:
(in wal_sync_method preference order, except fdatasync
is Linux's default)
         open_datasync                                 n/a
         fdatasync                         113.901 ops/sec
         fsync                              28.794 ops/sec
         fsync_writethrough                            n/a
         open_sync                         111.726 ops/sec

Compare file sync methods using two 8kB writes:
(in wal_sync_method preference order, except fdatasync
is Linux's default)
         open_datasync                                 n/a
         fdatasync                         112.637 ops/sec
         fsync                              28.641 ops/sec
         fsync_writethrough                            n/a
         open_sync                          55.546 ops/sec

Compare open_sync with different write sizes:
(This is designed to compare the cost of writing 16kB
in different write open_sync sizes.)
         16kB open_sync write              111.909 ops/sec
          8kB open_sync writes              55.278 ops/sec
          4kB open_sync writes              28.026 ops/sec
          2kB open_sync writes              14.002 ops/sec
          1kB open_sync writes               7.011 ops/sec

Test if fsync on non-write file descriptor is honored:
(If the times are similar, fsync() can sync data written
on a different descriptor.)
         write, fsync, close                28.836 ops/sec
         write, close, fsync                28.890 ops/sec

Non-Sync'ed 8kB writes:
         write                           112113.908 ops/sec

--
Greg Smith   2ndQuadrant US    greg@2ndQuadrant.com   Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support  www.2ndQuadrant.us