Optimising performance for many small files

[Ioannis Vranos]

OS: Ubuntu 10.10 x86.

Filesystem: ext4.

HDDs: Usual magnetic ones (SATA II), ~300 GBs each.


I am experiencing small performance when copying a few thousand small
files, about 10-20 KBs each. The usual write speed of ~31 MBs/sec,
drops to ~10 MBs/sec, when copying those small files, from one hard
disk to another (each with its own ext4 partition).

Is there a way to increase this performance in ext4? Is there any
other filesystem that performs better for small files? Reliability is
important.

Using ext4 without a journal will help?




Thanks,

-- 
Ioannis Vranos

http://www.cpp-software.net