2.0.8: server on tmpfs for small files

[a.beregalov at gmail.com (Alexander Beregalov)]

Hi

Is it possible to start server on tmpfs ?
It is announced that stripe can be used over tmpfs, but stripe is
client plugin and server cannot start on tmpfs because lack of
xattrs.

I am trying to setup a small fast storage for small files (compiling purpose).
I made ext2 with xattr on ramdisk on 4 hosts, joined them with
replicate plugin and mounted it on one client. Also io-cache,
write-behind, quick-read and io threads  were used on client side.
I compiled linux kernel, performance was 10 times worse than tmpfs
exported by NFS on one node.

Any ideas?

Servers:

volume posix
  type storage/posix                   # POSIX FS translator
  option directory /mnt/ost        # Export this directory
end-volume

volume locks
  type features/locks
  option mandatory-locks on
  subvolumes posix
end-volume

volume brick
  type performance/io-threads
  option thread-count 4                # Four CPUs
  subvolumes locks
end-volume

volume server
  type protocol/server
  option transport-type tcp
  option transport.socket.nodelay on
  subvolumes brick
  option auth.addr.brick.allow * # Allow access to "brick" volume
end-volume


Client:

volume server1
  type protocol/client
  option transport-type tcp
  option remote-host <IP>
  option transport.socket.nodelay on
  option remote-subvolume brick        # name of the remote volume
end-volume

<the same for server[2-4]>

volume replicated
  type cluster/replicate
  subvolumes server1 server2 server3 server4
end-volume

volume iocache
  type performance/io-cache
  option cache-size 1000MB        # default is 32MB
  option priority *.h:3,*.o:2,*:1     # default is '*:0'
  option cache-timeout 1                 # default is 1 second
  subvolumes replicated
end-volume

volume writeback
  type performance/write-behind
  option cache-size 500MB     # default is equal to aggregate-size
  option flush-behind off      # default is 'off'
  subvolumes iocache
end-volume

volume quickread
  type performance/quick-read
  option cache-timeout 1         # default 1 second
  option max-file-size 256KB        # default 64Kb
  subvolumes iocache
end-volume

volume iothreads
  type performance/io-threads
  option thread-count 16 # default is 16
  subvolumes quickread
end-volume