Re: fsync = true beneficial on ext3? - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: fsync = true beneficial on ext3?
Date
Msg-id 200402101223.i1ACNvC25542@candle.pha.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: fsync = true beneficial on ext3?  (JM <jerome@gmanmi.tv>)
Responses Re: fsync = true beneficial on ext3?  (Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu>)
List pgsql-general
JM wrote:
> Would a battery backed Card do the trick?

No because the fsync causes the data to hit the card.  Without the
fscync, the data could remain only in the kernel cache.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>
>
>
> On Tuesday 10 February 2004 00:42, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > Ed L. wrote:
> > > I'm curious what the consensus is, if any, on use of fsync on ext3
> > > filesystems with postgresql 7.3.4 or later.  I did some recent
> > > performance tests demonstrating a 45%-70% performance improvement for
> > > simple inserts with fsync off on one particular system.  Does fsync =
> > > true buy me any additional recoverability beyond ext3's journal recovery?
> >
> > Yes, it does.  Without fsync, you can't be sure the data has been pushed
> > to the disk drive in case of an OS crash or power failure.
> >
> > > If we write something without sync'ing, presumably it's immediately
> > > journaled?  So even if the DB crashes prior to fsync'ing, are we fully
> > > recoverable?  I've been running a few pgsql clusters on ext3 with fsync =
> > > false, suffered numerous OS crashes, and have yet to lose any data or see
> > > any corruption from any of those crashes.  Have I just been lucky?
> >
> > The fsync makes sure it hits the drive, rather than staying in the
> > kernel cache during an OS failure.
>

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