ArchWiki article: sysctl, Improving performance

[Moltke]

Hi everyone! Hope you’re all having a nice life!

I’ve read this https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sysctl#Improving_performance time and again, and even applied some “recommended tricks/tweaks”, i.e. vm.dirty_ratio = 10 and vm.dirty_background_ratio = 5 and they seem to indeed slightly improve performance. However, I don’t have quite clear yet whether the “recommended tricks/tweaks” are intended to be used in a server rather than a desktop, since the article doesn’t say. Does anyone here know anything about that? Another thing that I’m not sure about is the network “tricks/tweaks”, the ArchWiki reads

The default Linux network stack is not configured for high speed large file transfer across WAN links

And then there are some “recommended values” one could use which are supposed to improve performance, but it isn’t clear to me whether those are only useful on a wired or wireless connection, both? Thanks for any answers in advance.

[dalto]

@Moltke

are intended to be used in a server rather than a desktop, since the article doesn’t say.

Does it matter? The arch wiki is just a collection of user recommendations, not a source of absolute truth.

If those settings improve your performance, be happy.

@Moltke

And then there are some “recommended values” one could use which are supposed to improve performance, but it isn’t clear to me whether those are only useful on a wired or wireless connection, both?

WAN connections imply high latency connections such as those you would find going across the internet.

With any of those recommendations, results will vary based on your personal situation. Try them and see which ones work for you and which don’t.

[keybreak]

@dalto

The arch wiki is just a collection of user recommendations, not a source of absolute truth.

My life has just changed forever.

[Moltke]

@dalto

Does it matter? The arch wiki is just a collection of user recommendations, not a source of absolute truth.
If those settings improve your performance, be happy.

I guess you’re right, and it probably doesn’t matter.

@dalto

WAN connections imply high latency connections such as those you would find going across the internet.

With any of those recommendations, results will vary based on your personal situation. Try them and see which ones work for you and which don’t.

That’s what I’ve been doing, but I thought asking and see if anyone else has used them and could share their experiences. Thanks for your reply.

[Schlaefer]

@Moltke

However, I don’t have quite clear yet whether the “recommended tricks/tweaks” are intended to be used in a server rather than a desktop

Because this kind of tuning is often the task of balancing resources. On the desktop you might appreciate a fluid UI without microstutters, while on the server network or I/O throughput is more important.

[Moltke]

@Schlaefer

Because this kind of tuning is often the task of balancing resources. On the desktop you might appreciate a fluid UI without microstutters, while on the server network or I/O throughput is more important.

Yeah, I like that, “balancing resources”. Would you say, then, it will be better to focus on tweaking around kernel parameters related to virtual memory management? In desktop, I mean https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sysctl#Virtual_memory

There are several key parameters to tune the operation of the virtual memory subsystem of the Linux kernel and the write out of dirty data to disk.

And just leave “network or I/O throughput” alone, use the defaults?

[onyxnz]

Yup, exactly right. There is only one single source of truth; our Esteemed Leader!!!11!!

Jacinda Ardern - "We will continue to be your single source of truth"

Patiently waiting for her to tell me how to encrypt btrfs partitions…

[ricklinux]

@Moltke
I don’t think some of this stuff you are reading regarding networking performance are necessarily for a single computer or home user with a few computers.

[Moltke]

@ricklinux

I don’t think some of this stuff you are reading regarding networking performance are necessarily for a single computer or home user with a few computers.

Actually, I’ve read that article quite a few times, and yet somehow I missed this part every time I did

If the server suffers from overloads at peak times

This is in the networking part, so I guess you’re right. Thanks for your reply.