Re: [SLE] Hard disk performance / hdparm placement

Alexandr Malusek wrote:

Mark Hounschell writes:

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"Mark W. Knecht" wrote:

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Hello, On other Linux distributions I've used hdparm successfully to increase hard disk speed:

hdparm -u 1 -d 1 /dev/hda

If your are using SuSE 7.1 (which comforms to the LSB) then /etc/init.d/boot.local would be the place.

I don't disagree, but despite of that I think the following should be discussed:

The problem with hdparm in /etc/init.d/boot.local or /etc/init.d/rc5.d/S01idedma (the YaST2 way) is that the setting "using_dma" is done after sometimes longlasting fsck.

I tested putting "hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda" in the beginning of /etc/init.d/boot on my home computer with a slow disk. The total fsck time on 7 and 5 GB partitions was reduced from 2:55 to 2:14 (23%). It wasn't much, but I expect bigger difference on my computer at work (faster disks, 90 GB).

Is there any reason why hdparm is run after fsck during the booting process? (Especially when hdparm settings have been proven to be safe.)

Not sure, but I know there are some chip sets/drives that will crap out when you tune them with hdparm or at the very least, get a little flacky. During an fsck that could be fatal. I would expect that sooner or later that should go away or maybe even hdparm will not even be necessary. -- Mark Hounschell dmarkh@cfl.rr.com