The document presents a benchmark study comparing various filesystems on different operating systems, focusing on performance in relation to Perforce on Linux and its transition from Solaris. Results indicate that XFS is the top performer, followed by Btrfs and Ext3, with Windows showing poor performance compared to Linux filesystems. Key conclusions suggest XFS as a reliable choice, while raising questions about the value of ZFS features and the readiness of Btrfs for production use.

1. Filesystem Showdown
What a difference a decade makes
Matt Janulewicz & Steve Oddo
Dolby Labs

2. 2
The Problem
 Perforce on Solaris is sunsetting
 Standardizing on Linux
• Which filesystem?
 Previous Merge presentations a decade old
 Perforce has recommendations, no numbers

3. 3
The Methodology
 Standard Perforce branch-submit benchmark
 Test on same physical hardware (retired master)
 Use out-of-the-box settings (aside from compression)
 Include Windows
 Software RAID drives (lvm, ZFS, BTRFS, Windows volume)
 Run tests five times, chart average

4. 4
The System
 Master server retired in March 2015
• 2 physical processors (Intel Xeon 2.2 Ghz)
• 16 cores (8 per CPU)
• 512 GB memory
 Ten SAS drives
• 3 TB each
• Samsung 7200 RPM 6 Gbps
 P4D 2015.1

5. 5
Filesystems and OS’s
 Solaris 11 x86_64
• ZFS (uncompressed/compressed lzjb)
 RedHat Linux 7.2
• ZFS (uncompressed/compressed lzjb)
• Ext3/Ext4
• Xfs
• BTRFS (uncompressed/compressed lzo/compressed zlib)
 Windows Server 2012R2
• NTFS/ReFS

6. 6
Datasets
 Branch-Submit
• ftp://ftp.perforce.com/perforce/tools/benchmarks/datasets/reference01.2
015.1.ckp.gz
 Miscellaneous Tests
• changes 6,478
• files 4,200,348
• revisions 5,658,595
• Integs 15,434,516
• total size 112 GB

7. 7
Results (Benchmark)
Winner: XFS
Honorable Mention:
BTRFS-compressed,
BTRFS-uncompressed,
ext3
Running Tally:
XFS: 1.0
BTRFS-c: 0.5
BTRFS-u: 0.5
ext3: 0.5

8. 8
Results (Benchmark)
Winner: BTRFS-c
Honorable Mention:
BTRFS-u, XFS, ext4, ext3
Running Tally:
XFS: 1.5
BTRFS-c: 1.5
BTRFS-u: 1.0
ext3: 1.0
ext4: 0.5

9. 9
Results (Benchmark)
Winner: BTRFS, ZFS-l
Honorable Mention:
XFS, ext4, ext3
Running Tally:
BTRFS-c: 2.5
XFS: 2.0
BTRFS-u: 2.0
ext3: 1.5
ext4: 1.0
ZFS-l: 1.0

10. 10
Results (Benchmark)
Winner: ZFS-l
Honorable Mention:
BTRFS-u, BTRFS-c
Running Tally:
BTRFS-c: 3.0
BTRFS-u: 2.5
XFS: 2.0
ZFS-l: 2.0
ext3: 1.5
ext4: 1.0

11. 11
Results (Benchmark)
Winner: XFS, ext4
Honorable Mention:
Ext3, BTRFS-c, BTRFS-u
Running Tally:
BTRFS-c: 3.5
XFS: 3.0
BTRFS-u: 3.0
ext4: 2.0
ZFS-l: 2.0
ext3: 1.5

12. 12
Results (Benchmark)
Winner: XFS, ext4
Honorable Mention:
Ext3, BTRFS-c, BTRFS-u
Running Tally:
XFS: 4.0
BTRFS-c: 4.0
BTRFS-u: 3.5
ext4: 3.0
ext3: 2.0
ZFS-l: 2.0

13. 13
Results (Miscellaneous)
Winner: ext3, BTRFS-u,
BTRFS-c, ext4, XFS
Honorable Mention:
Running Tally:
XFS: 5.0
BTRFS-c: 5.0
BTRFS-u: 4.5
ext4: 4.0
ext3: 3.0
ZFS-l: 2.0

14. 14
Results (Miscellaneous)
Winner: ext3, BTRFS-u,
BTRFS-c, ext4, XFS
Honorable Mention:
Running Tally:
XFS: 6.0
BTRFS-c: 6.0
BTRFS-u: 5.5
ext4: 5.0
ext3: 4.0
ZFS-l: 2.0

15. 15
Results (Miscellaneous)
Winner: BTRFS-c
Honorable Mention:
BTRFS-u, ext3
Running Tally:
BTRFS-c: 7.0
XFS: 6.0
BTRFS-u: 5.5
ext4: 5.0
ext3: 4.5
ZFS-l: 2.0

16. 16
Results (Miscellaneous)
Winner: BTRFS-u
Honorable Mention:
BTRFS-c, ext3, ZFS-l
Running Tally:
BTRFS-c: 7.5
BTRFS-u: 6.5
XFS: 6.0
ext3: 5.0
ext4: 5.0
ZFS-l: 2.5

17. 17
Results (Miscellaneous)
Winner: XFS, ext4
Honorable Mention:
BTRFS-c, BTRFS-u, ext3
Running Tally:
BTRFS-c: 8.0
XFS: 7.0
BTRFS-u: 7.0
ext3: 5.5
ext4: 5.0
ZFS-l: 2.5

18. Poor Performers:
Windows, ZFS
Better Performers:
Linux (anything)

19. 19
Final Thoughts
 Windows performs generally worse when compared to
almost any Linux filesystem.
 XFS is a solid choice. Supported, mature, fast.
 BTRFS compressed vs uncompressed not hugely different.
 Ext3 holds up surprisingly well. Go figure.

20. 20
Questions For You
 Are ZFS features worth the performance hit? (likely)
 Is BTRFS ready for primetime? (perhaps)
 Is Windows performance poor enough to justify introducing
Linux into your data center? (yes, yes it is)

21. Contact us for raw data
or further questions.
majanu@dolby.com
sjo@dolby.com