20 Mar
2003
20 Mar
'03
12:08 a.m.
Hi -
From: David Evans <dfevans(a)bbcr.uwaterloo.ca>
OK. From what I recall (that turned-off machine again...) the entire
discussion on tuning MAXUSERS and friends is based on allocation of UMRs.
Might be a good idea to slip in a note about what to do when you don't have
It is less a matter of MAXUSERS than it is of NBUF. NBUF sets
the number of disc cache buffers. MAXUSERS affects the size of the
proc table, file table, and other tables which are in the permanent
(not mapped in/out) portion of the kernel's address space but does
not affect the disc buffer cache which is the entity requiring UMRs
on a UNIBUS system.
The buffer cache must be entirely mapped by UMRs - so if you have a
32KB buffer the kernel will reserve 4 UMRs on a UNIBUS system.
Realistically a 64KB buffer cache is about the maximum a UNIBUS system
can have because that takes 8 of the UMRs.
With the old (thankfully no longer in use, etc) 3Com ethernet boards
you had to disable 4 UMRs so the system could access the memory in the
card - that made for a very tight fit.
The other constraint, even for Qbus systems, is the D space requirement.
The 1KB portion of the disc buffer is "external" to the kernel (is
mapped in/out as needed) but there is a header structure which is
part of the kernel's permanent address space. Each buffer header is
24 bytes so even without UMRs around it's not feasible to have a 200KB
cache because that'd use 4800 bytes of kernel D space (which is always
on the edge of being overflowed it seems).
On a 11/73 I've used a 100KB buffer cache but when I was using 11/44s
and /70s the max was 64KB.
Cheers,
Steven Schultz