Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!brtph3!brchh104!brchs1!bnr.ca!rice.edu!sun-spots-request
From: perf@efd.lth.se (Per Foreby)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: How to increase NFS Performance?
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <1675@brchh104.bnr.ca>
Date: 18 Feb 91 18:43:00 GMT
Sender: news@brchh104.bnr.ca
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 33
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Original-Date: Mon, 11 Feb 91 19:06:34 +0100
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 41, message 6
X-Note: Submissions: sun-spots@rice.edu, Admin: sun-spots-request@rice.edu

What is the best thing I can do in order to increase NFS performance on
our central file server?

Facts:
-----
* Sun 3/280
* SunOs 4.1
* 8 Mb memory
* 5 Gb disk (6 disks on 2 xd753)
* Serves approx 100 clients with USER files (the clients have their
  root and swap on other servers)  
* Low write percentage (about 3%) (write + create + remove)
* CPU idle time > 50%
* Load average approx 5.

Possible solutions:
------------------

1. Upgrade to sun4 (4/380?)
   * Does this help when the cpu is idle most of the time?

2. Add more memory
   * Gives me more diskcache. 
   * Is there any way to list some stats for the cache? vmstat showes about
     250 K free list size, but does this include the disk cache, or can the
     free list borrow pages from the disk cache if it needs more?

3. Buy a Prestoserve
   * Is this really usefull when the write percentage is low?

Please email, I'll summarize.

Per Foreby; perf@efd.lth.se; LTH-E, Box 118, S-221 00 LUND, Sweden; 046-107492