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Average writes to Disk

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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  • F
    fireodo @johnpoz
    last edited by Aug 12, 2021, 7:34 PM

    @johnpoz Here is my output - I'm also no ZFS expert!
    As far as I see not much different ...
    zpool iostat
    capacity operations bandwidth
    pool alloc free read write read write


    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 12 319 214K

    zpool iostat zroot 2
    capacity operations bandwidth
    pool alloc free read write read write


    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 12 319 214K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 35 0 623K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 30 0 432K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 1 0 8.00K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 36 0 535K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 32 0 442K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 2 0 28.0K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 35 0 618K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 32 0 420K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 3 0 22.0K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 35 0 486K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 32 0 442K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 7.99K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 5.98K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 32 0 442K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 806M 11.7G 0 1 0 14.0K
    zroot 806M 11.7G 0 2 0 28.0K
    zroot 806M 11.7G 0 1 0 14.0K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 33 0 442K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 31 0 428K
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 0 0 0
    zroot 807M 11.7G 0 10 0 623K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 33 0 547K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 35 0 498K
    zroot 808M 11.7G 0 1 0 14.0K

    Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
    SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
    pfsense 2.7.2 CE
    Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

    M 1 Reply Last reply Aug 12, 2021, 8:01 PM Reply Quote 0
    • M
      mcury @fireodo
      last edited by Aug 12, 2021, 8:01 PM

      SG-3100 - 21.05.1 - pfblockerng dnsbl python mode enabled

      iostat -d 5 6
      6dd05033-bf0e-488b-816b-548dcdec0275-image.png

      dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

      F K 2 Replies Last reply Aug 12, 2021, 8:03 PM Reply Quote 0
      • F
        fireodo @mcury
        last edited by Aug 12, 2021, 8:03 PM

        @mcury I guess FS is UFS and not ZFS ...

        Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
        SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
        pfsense 2.7.2 CE
        Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

        M 1 Reply Last reply Aug 12, 2021, 8:05 PM Reply Quote 0
        • M
          mcury @fireodo
          last edited by Aug 12, 2021, 8:05 PM

          @fireodo said in Average writes to Disk:

          @mcury I guess FS is UFS and not ZFS ...

          Indeed, UFS here, noatime in fstab

          dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

          F 1 Reply Last reply Aug 12, 2021, 8:06 PM Reply Quote 0
          • F
            fireodo @mcury
            last edited by Aug 12, 2021, 8:06 PM

            @mcury said in Average writes to Disk:

            @fireodo said in Average writes to Disk:

            @mcury I guess FS is UFS and not ZFS ...

            Indeed, UFS here, noatime in fstab

            So it seams to cristallise that ZFS is the problem ...

            Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
            SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
            pfsense 2.7.2 CE
            Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • K
              keyser Rebel Alliance @mcury
              last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 7:06 AM

              @mcury said in Average writes to Disk:

              SG-3100 - 21.05.1 - pfblockerng dnsbl python mode enabled

              iostat -d 5 6
              6dd05033-bf0e-488b-816b-548dcdec0275-image.png

              This is really interesting because your box does not suffer from sustained writing from UNBOUND (caused by pfBlockerNG in python mode).
              That would suggest it’s a setting or configuration detail that causes the issue.

              I wonder what that might be. I think my setup is fairly default, but I have pfBlockerNG creating alias lists instead of it’s own rules.

              Maybe we should start a thread with pfBlockerNG configs to see if we can find the root configuration cause for sustained writing to disk in pfBlockerNG?

              Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

              K 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 7:49 AM Reply Quote 0
              • K
                keyser Rebel Alliance @keyser
                last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 7:49 AM

                @keyser Just as a follow up I think I have now tried EVERY possible setting in my pfBlockerNG setup in terms of making it “quiet” on disk writes.
                Nothing sticks - No lists, no logging enabled anywhere, nothing - and still I have a UNBOUND process that writes on average about 380 Kb/s to disk if python mode is enabled.
                If I disable Python mode or disable pfBlockerNG in general, UNBOUND no longer does it’s sustained disk writing.

                So what could cause that behavior?

                Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                F 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 8:01 AM Reply Quote 0
                • F
                  fireodo @keyser
                  last edited by fireodo Aug 13, 2021, 8:25 AM Aug 13, 2021, 8:01 AM

                  @keyser said in Average writes to Disk:

                  Just as a follow up I think I have now tried EVERY possible setting in my pfBlockerNG setup

                  Good Morning (here it is),

                  I do not think pfblockerNG (in my case) is the culprit - I just set up a APU2 machine that was yesterday with ZFS and now with UFS and ... voilà: the writings are GONE!

                  iostat -d 5 6
                  md0 ada0 pass0
                  KB/t tps MB/s KB/t tps MB/s KB/t tps MB/s
                  0.00 0 0.00 22.55 13 0.30 0.38 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 4.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 4.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00

                  This seams to prove my suspicion from yesterday that ZFS is causing the heavy writings to disk even if no service is activated on the firewall.

                  PS. Here the same machine with the same config but ZFS:
                  iostat -d 5 6
                  md0 ada0 pass0
                  KB/t tps MB/s KB/t tps MB/s KB/t tps MB/s
                  0.00 1 0.00 16.67 41 0.67 0.38 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 11.29 26 0.28 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 14.13 19 0.26 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 12.38 21 0.25 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 14.70 19 0.27 0.00 0 0.00
                  0.00 0 0.00 14.06 21 0.29 0.00 0 0.00

                  Have a good trip to weekend ...
                  fireodo

                  Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                  SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                  pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                  Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • T
                    tomashk
                    last edited by tomashk Aug 13, 2021, 8:22 AM Aug 13, 2021, 8:21 AM

                    I hope I remember correctly, but zfs by default writes every 5 seconds if there is anything to write. Also it depends on type of write operation (synchronous or asynchronous). Because it is easy to revert copy of the pfsense configuration I changed a little zfs configuration on my device (but with it there is a little bit bigger chance of problems in case of not clean shutdown)

                    So for my device I changed the following:

                    • make all writes asynchronous (probably won't help much here, but software doesn't have to wait for OS to finish writing)
                    zfs set sync=disabled zroot
                    
                    • System -> Advanced -> System Tunables - set vfs.zfs.txg.timeout to 180 - it will increase time between writes from 5s to 180s; during this time all operations will happen in RAM; but writes could happen earlier if there is too much to write (also OS is able to force writing earlier - I'm not expert so I don't know all conditions); for me write happens once or twice during said 3 minutes
                    • because there is bigger chance of failure with 180s I made zfs to write everything twice (I have 100GB SSD so it is not problem); this won't guaranty data safety, but still (works only for newly written data - old won't be touched)
                    zfs set copies=2 zroot
                    

                    That works for me. Please read about it before changing anything. Or at least have configuration backup before you try.

                    T F J 4 Replies Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 8:33 AM Reply Quote 0
                    • T
                      tohil @tomashk
                      last edited by stephenw10 Aug 13, 2021, 12:05 PM Aug 13, 2021, 8:33 AM

                      I use ZFS also but with RAM disks. this will reduce the writes to the ssd massively, right?

                        KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s
                        0.00   1  0.00   0.00   1  0.00  13.97   1  0.01   0.00   0  0.00
                        0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                        0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                        0.00   0  0.00   0.00  12  0.00   7.86  23  0.18   0.00   0  0.00
                        0.00   2  0.00   0.00   2  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                        0.00   3  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                      
                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • F
                        fireodo @tomashk
                        last edited by stephenw10 Aug 13, 2021, 12:05 PM Aug 13, 2021, 8:39 AM

                        @tomashk

                        I followed your suggestions and it looks good:

                        iostat -d 5 6
                                     md0             ada0            pass0
                          KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s
                          0.00   0  0.00  15.55  14  0.21   0.38   0  0.00
                          0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                          0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                          0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                          0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                          0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00   0.00   0  0.00
                        

                        This is the production machine where initially I found that heavy writing. I give it 24 hours and keep an eye also on the LBA_written.

                        Thanks anyway!
                        fireodo

                        Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                        SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                        pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                        Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • F
                          fireodo @tomashk
                          last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 8:45 AM

                          @tomashk said in Average writes to Disk:

                          zfs set sync=disabled zroot

                          Is this command permanent or has it to be made on each reboot? Thanks

                          Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                          SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                          pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                          Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                          T T 2 Replies Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 8:59 AM Reply Quote 0
                          • T
                            tohil @fireodo
                            last edited by stephenw10 Aug 13, 2021, 12:06 PM Aug 13, 2021, 8:59 AM

                            This is the SMART Test output from one of my boxes, APU2 Board with 16GB SSD...
                            241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB shows GB count written.... -> 4176.278 TB???? no way....

                            SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
                            Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
                            ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
                              1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
                              9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       8694
                             12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       42
                            168 SATA_Phy_Error_Count    0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
                            170 Bad_Blk_Ct_Erl/Lat      0x0013   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0/20
                            173 MaxAvgErase_Ct          0x0000   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       385 (Average 775)
                            192 Unsafe_Shutdown_Count   0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       4
                            194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0023   070   070   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       30
                            196 Not_In_Use              0x0000   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
                            218 CRC_Error_Count         0x0000   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
                            241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB     0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       4176278
                            
                            SMART Error Log Version: 1
                            No Errors Logged
                            
                            SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
                            Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
                            # 1  Extended captive    Completed without error       00%      8694         -
                            # 2  Short captive       Completed without error       00%      8694         -
                            # 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      2557         -
                            
                            SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
                            Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
                             SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
                                1        0        0  Not_testing
                                2        0        0  Not_testing
                                3        0        0  Not_testing
                                4        0        0  Not_testing
                                5        0        0  Not_testing
                            Selective self-test flags (0x0):
                              After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
                            If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
                            
                            F 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 9:06 AM Reply Quote 0
                            • F
                              fireodo @tohil
                              last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 9:06 AM

                              @tohil said in Average writes to Disk:

                              241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB shows GB count written.... -> 4176.278 TB???? no way....

                              Smart is always Device specific - you have to dig for the correct interpretation of those values ... 4 PB is heavy and I don't believe it even its theoretically possible ...

                              Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                              SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                              pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                              Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • T
                                tomashk @fireodo
                                last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 9:20 AM

                                @fireodo said in Average writes to Disk:

                                @tomashk said in Average writes to Disk:

                                zfs set sync=disabled zroot

                                Is this command permanent or has it to be made on each reboot? Thanks

                                It is permanent. You can check if it is set with this command:

                                zfs get -r sync zroot
                                

                                (it will show information for whole zfs file system)

                                and you can revert it with this command if I remember correctly:

                                zfs set sync=enabled zroot
                                
                                F 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 10:02 AM Reply Quote 0
                                • F
                                  fireodo @tomashk
                                  last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 10:02 AM

                                  @tomashk

                                  Thank you! Those settings do the trick! Maybe @jimp can take a look on this thread and maybe its something for the next version ...?

                                  Regards,
                                  fireodo

                                  Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                  SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                  pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                                  Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                                  J T 2 Replies Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 10:17 AM Reply Quote 0
                                  • J
                                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @fireodo
                                    last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 10:17 AM

                                    Yeah I would hope that the default settings used for zfs install wouldn't be a determinant to life of SSD or eMMC would have issues with total writes as well..

                                    I don't know of a way to check what eMMC reports for total life write, etc.

                                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                                    F 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 10:27 AM Reply Quote 0
                                    • F
                                      fireodo @johnpoz
                                      last edited by fireodo Aug 13, 2021, 10:31 AM Aug 13, 2021, 10:27 AM

                                      @johnpoz said in Average writes to Disk:

                                      I don't know of a way to check what eMMC reports for total life write, etc.

                                      As I don't have any device here with eMMC (OK, except my Phone but that's out of my research-reach :-D ) I cannot say anything about it. Is it smart capable? Documentation says its a kind of predecesor of SD-Card ...

                                      Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                      SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                      pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                                      Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                                      J 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 11:36 AM Reply Quote 0
                                      • J
                                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @fireodo
                                        last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 11:36 AM

                                        If for whatever reason the onboard eMMC died, I know you can add a msata to it.. So that would always be an option.

                                        But would be curious if there is a way to get info from it on total data written, etc.

                                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by Aug 13, 2021, 12:08 PM

                                          There's no way to get write data from eMMC AFAIK.

                                          J 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2021, 12:18 PM Reply Quote 0
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