The bdflush parameters

Securing and Optimizing Linux: RedHat Edition -A Hands on Guide
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# 6.5. The bdflush parameters

The bdflush file is closely related to the operation of the virtual memory VM subsystem of the Linux kernel and has a little influence on disk usage. This file `/proc/sys/vm/bdflush` controls the operation of the bdflush kernel daemon. We generally tune this file to improve file system performance. By changing some values from the default as shown below, the system seems more responsive; e.g. it waits a little more to write to disk and thus avoids some disk access contention.

The default setup for the bdflush parameters under Red Hat Linux is: `"40 500 64 256 500 3000 500 1884 2"` To change the values of bdflush, type the following command on your terminal:

              [root@deep] /# echo "100 1200 128 512 15 5000 500 1884 2">/proc/sys/vm/bdflush

You may add the above commands to the `/etc/rc.d/rc.local` script file and you'll not have to type it again the next time you reboot your system.

Edit the `/etc/sysctl.conf` file and add the following line:

              # Improve file system performance
              vm.bdflush = 100 1200 128 512 15 5000 500 1884 2

You must restart your network for the change to take effect. The command to manually restart the network is the following:

              [root@deep] /# /etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart

`Setting network parameters [ OK ] Bringing up interface lo [ OK ] Bringing up interface eth0 [ OK ] Bringing up interface eth1 [ OK ]`

In our example above, according to `the/usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt` file-

The first parameter 100 %

  governs the maximum number of dirty buffers in the buffer cache. Dirty means that the contents of the buffer still have to be written to disk as opposed to a clean buffer, which can just be forgotten about. Setting this to a high value means that Linux can delay disk writes for a long time, but it also means that it will have to do a lot of I/O at once when memory becomes short. A low value will spread out disk I/O more evenly.

The second parameter 1200 ndirty

  This gives the maximum number of dirty buffers that bdflush can write to the disk in one time. A high value will mean delayed, bursty I/O, while a small value can lead to memory shortage when bdflush isn't woken up often enough.

The third parameter 128 nrefill

  This is the number of buffers that bdflush will add to the list of free buffers when refill_freelist() is called. It is necessary to allocate free buffers beforehand, since the buffers often are of a different size than memory pages and some bookkeeping needs to be done beforehand. The higher the number, the more memory will be wasted and the less often refill_freelist() will need to run.

refill_freelist() 512

  When this comes across more than nref_dirt dirty buffers, it will wake up bdflush.

age_buffer `50*HZ`, age_super parameters `5*HZ`

  Finally, the age_buffer `50*HZ` and age_super parameters `5*HZ` govern the maximum time Linux waits before writing out a dirty buffer to disk. The value is expressed in jiffies (clockticks); the number of jiffies per second is 100. Age_buffer is the maximum age for data blocks, while age_super is for file system metadata.

The fifth 15 and the last two parameters 1884 and 2

  These are unused by the system so we don't need to change the default ones.

> : Look at `/usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt` for more information on how to improve kernel parameters related to virtual memory.

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