IO Request Size

The size of requests and the rate at which they are sent are important for evaluating the way applications work with the disk. If you are an application developer, you can use the counters, such as Avg. Disk Bytes/Read, that reveal these types of information about I/O requests.

It is typically faster and more efficient to read a few large records than many small ones. However, transfer rates eventually peak due to the fact that the disk is moving blocks of data so large that each transfer occurs more slowly—although its total throughput is quite high. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to control this factor. However, if your system is used to transfer many small units of data, this inefficiency might help to explain, though not resolve, high disk use.

Requests should be at least 8 KB, and, if possible, 64 KB. Sequential I/O requests of 2 KB consume a substantial amount of processor time, which affects overall system performance. However, if you can be sure that only 2 KB of data is necessary, doing a 2 KB I/O is the most efficient, because a larger I/O wastes direct memory access (DMA) controller bandwidth. As the record size increases, the throughput increases and the transfer rate falls because it takes fewer reads to move the same amount data.

Using 64 KB requests results in faster throughput with very little processor time. Maximum throughput typically occurs at 64 KB, although some devices might have a higher maximum throughput size. When transferring data blocks greater than 64 KB, the I/O subsystem breaks the transfers into 64-KB blocks. Above 64 KB, the transfer rate drops sharply, and throughput levels off. Processor use and interrupts also appear to level off at 64 KB.

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