On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Frank Kardel wrote:

# With UBC there is also another interesting parameter generating much
# joy when increased:
#   sysctl -w kern.maxvnodes=64000 (for bigger machines arount 700MB RAM)
#
# The data-pages now hang off the vnodes in UBC if i read the hints everywhere
# right. Now the more vnodes you have the more data can be tacked onto them.
# Increasing the buffer cache only helps meta data and takes memory away for
# vnode data caching. Try to look at the "vmstat buf" statistics page and look
# for vnode data pages. My machine (768MB) usually caches around 500-600MB
# file system data. And more - lingering vnodes do not need to be filled
# from the buffer cache. Effects are that kernel ld-runs are completely filled
# from memory (just written .o files) and the bufcache is only used for
# moving meta data. Set me right if i overlooked something here.

I thought vnodes WERE metadata.  Or is it that the _i_node data is the
stuff (under the vnode) that gets cached and the vnode is just a pointer,
and there's no cache for that?

[I seem to recall that vnodes did get cached; they were the one parameter
 that if they maxed out (according to pstat) you didn't have to really
 worry about it (unlike files or swap space)...]

Is there a tool that displays buffer cache statistics in some form?
I don't think pstat is what I want for that (although it does show the
open file table...), and I don't think vmstat is what I want, either...

[It would be interesting to see the buffer cache's references.  Useful?
Probably not on a large scale.  But as I'm not well-versed in kernel
hacking, I'm curious to see what's there...]

# Frank Kardel


				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: Microsoft ask you where you want to go.  BSD gets you there.