[Gluster-users] Low Performance Problems

[Martin Reissner]

Hello, I'm evaluating GlusterFS as a storage backend for webcontent
behind a cache cluster and I feel I'm not getting the performance I
should. My test hardware is:
client:
dual opteron 2.2ghz, 4gb ram, 2x36.5gb scsi in hardware raid1 ext3

servers:
pentium d 2.8ghz, 1gb ram, 4x500gb sata in software raid5 ext3

the servers are connected via gigabit ethernet on a dedicated switch
with no other traffic. All servers are running Ubuntu 8.04 64bit. I
tried GlusterFS 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 with similar results.

my glusterfs config is as follows, all translators with default options:
server:
posix
locks
io-threads
server(tcp)

client:
clients(tcp)
[distribute]
read-ahead
write-behind
io-threads

I ran some tests copying a 227mb fileset consisting of 21690 image files
 with an average size of 8kb. For comparison I used a NFSv3 share. Here
are the results:

NFS:
write: 74s
read:  36s

GlusterFS 1 Server:
write: 332s
read:   59s

GlusterFS 2 Servers with Distribute:
write: 331s
read:   60s

I monitored Loadaverage, CPU and Diskusage on all machines and found no
bottleneck there. Network problems are also not an option as NFS does
way better. Am I right in expecting better performance from GlusterFS
and does anyone know where I could start in improving?

Thanks,
Martin