During the writing of the article, it was found that writing several kilobytes of data to the BTRFS file system leads to writing 3 megabytes of real data to disk.
Introduction
“Oh, nonsense, memory cells on modern SSDs will go out of operation after dozens of years of normal use, don’t worry about this, and even more so transfer swap, virtual machines and the browser profile folder to the HDD” - a typical answer to the question about the reliability of SSDs with guaranteed ≈150 TBW . If you estimate how much typical software can write data, it seems that 10-20 GB per day is already a big figure, let there be a maximum of 40 GB, much more. With such numbers, the answer is quite reasonable - it takes 10 years to achieve guaranteed values for the number of overwriting cells, with 40 GB of recorded data daily.However, for 6 years I have been using the third SSD: the first one had a controller out of order, and the second one started moving data between cells several times a day, which resulted in 30-second delays in recording maintenance.
After 7 months of using the new SSD, I decided to check the amount of recorded data, as the disk itself reports via SMART.
19.7 TB.
In just 7 months, I used 13% of the guaranteed amount of recorded data, despite the fact that it is configured in accordance with the recommendations for aligning partitions and setting up the FS, I almost do not use swap, virtual machine disks are located on the HDD!
This is an abnormally high figure, at such a pace the TBW warranty will be exceeded before the 5-year drive warranty period is reached. And my computer can’t write 93 gigabytes per day! You need to check how much data is written to disk in 10 minutes ...
2.2 GiB, wow!Total:
Writes Queued: 24,712, 2,237MiB
Writes Completed: 25,507, 2,237MiB
Write Merges: 58, 5,472KiB
Determining the amount of data written to a disk device
If your device supports SMART (SSD, EMMC, some industrial MicroSD), then the first thing to do is to request data from the drivesmartctl
,
skdump
or
mmc
programs (from the mmc-utils package).
Smartctl sample output
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb smartctl 7.0 2019-03-31 r4903 [x86_64-linux-5.3.11-200.fc30.x86_64] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-18, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Samsung based SSDs Device Model: Samsung SSD 860 EVO mSATA 250GB Serial Number: S41MNC0KA13477K LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 e700fa64b Firmware Version: RVT41B6Q User Capacity: 250 059 350 016 bytes [250 GB] Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical Rotation Rate: Solid State Device Form Factor: mSATA Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: ACS-4 T13/BSR INCITS 529 revision 5 SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Tue Nov 19 01:48:50 2019 MSK SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity was never started. Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 0) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x53) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. No Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. No Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 85) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x003d) SCT Status supported. SCT Error Recovery Control supported. SCT Feature Control supported. SCT Data Table supported. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 5171 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 459 177 Wear_Leveling_Count 0x0013 096 096 000 Pre-fail Always - 62 179 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot 0x0013 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total 0x0032 100 100 010 Old_age Always - 0 182 Erase_Fail_Count_Total 0x0032 100 100 010 Old_age Always - 0 183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0013 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 187 Uncorrectable_Error_Cnt 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0032 058 039 000 Old_age Always - 42 195 ECC_Error_Rate 0x001a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 199 CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 235 POR_Recovery_Count 0x0012 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 29 241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 38615215765 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t] SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
My SSD stores the amount of data written in parameter 241 Total_LBAs_Written, in logical units (LBA), and not in bytes. The size of the logical block in my case is 512 bytes (it can be seen in the output of smartctl, in Sector Size). To get bytes, you need to multiply the value of the parameter by 512.
38615215765 × 512 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 = 19,770 38615215765 × 512 ÷ 1024 ÷ 1024 ÷ 1024 ÷ 1024 = 17,981
Program
skdump
on my SSD tries to interpret Total_LBAs_Written value once in its own way, because of what brings
1296217.695 TB
, which is obviously incorrect.
To find out the amount of recorded information at the device level, we use the
btrace
program from the
blktrace
package. It shows both the general statistics for the entire duration of the program, and the individual processes and threads (including kernels) that performed the recording.
Run the following command to collect information in 10 minutes, where / dev / sdb is your disk:
# btrace -w 600 -a write /dev/sdb
Typical command output
… 8,16 0 3253 50.085433192 0 C WS 125424240 + 64 [0] 8,16 0 3254 50.085550024 0 C WS 193577744 + 64 [0] 8,16 0 3255 50.085685165 0 C WS 197246976 + 64 [0] 8,16 0 3256 50.085936852 0 C WS 125736264 + 128 [0] 8,16 0 3257 50.086060780 0 C WS 96261752 + 64 [0] 8,16 0 3258 50.086195031 0 C WS 94948640 + 64 [0] 8,16 0 3259 50.086327355 0 C WS 124656144 + 64 [0] 8,16 0 3260 50.086843733 15368 C WSM 310218496 + 32 [0] 8,16 0 3261 50.086975238 753 A WSM 310218368 + 32 <- (8,20) 291339904 8,16 0 3262 50.086975560 753 Q WSM 310218368 + 32 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3263 50.086977345 753 G WSM 310218368 + 32 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3264 50.086978072 753 I WSM 310218368 + 32 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3265 50.086979159 753 D WSM 310218368 + 32 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3266 50.087055685 0 C WSM 310218368 + 32 [0] 8,16 0 3267 50.087060168 753 A WSM 310218592 + 160 <- (8,20) 291340128 8,16 0 3268 50.087060367 753 Q WSM 310218592 + 160 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3269 50.087061242 753 G WSM 310218592 + 160 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3270 50.087061698 753 I WSM 310218592 + 160 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3271 50.087062361 753 D WSM 310218592 + 160 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3272 50.087386179 0 C WSM 310218592 + 160 [0] 8,16 0 3273 50.087436417 15368 A FWS 0 + 0 <- (253,1) 0 8,16 0 3274 50.087437471 15368 Q FWS [LS Thread] 8,16 0 3275 50.087440862 15368 G FWS [LS Thread] 8,16 0 3276 50.088300047 0 C WS 0 [0] 8,16 0 3277 50.088470917 753 A WFSM 18882688 + 8 <- (8,20) 4224 8,16 0 3278 50.088471091 753 Q WFSM 18882688 + 8 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3279 50.088471688 753 G WFSM 18882688 + 8 [dmcrypt_write/2] 8,16 0 3280 50.088474334 32254 D WSM 18882688 + 8 [kworker/0:2H] 8,16 0 3281 50.088515572 0 C WSM 18882688 + 8 [0] 8,16 0 3282 50.089229069 0 C WSM 18882688 [0] CPU0 (8,16): Reads Queued: 0, 0KiB Writes Queued: 345, 25,932KiB Read Dispatches: 0, 0KiB Write Dispatches: 331, 25,788KiB Reads Requeued: 0 Writes Requeued: 0 Reads Completed: 0, 0KiB Writes Completed: 1,597, 117,112KiB Read Merges: 0, 0KiB Write Merges: 1, 16KiB Read depth: 0 Write depth: 177 IO unplugs: 0 Timer unplugs: 0 CPU1 (8,16): Reads Queued: 0, 0KiB Writes Queued: 502, 39,948KiB Read Dispatches: 0, 0KiB Write Dispatches: 495, 40,076KiB Reads Requeued: 0 Writes Requeued: 0 Reads Completed: 0, 0KiB Writes Completed: 0, 0KiB Read Merges: 0, 0KiB Write Merges: 0, 0KiB Read depth: 0 Write depth: 177 IO unplugs: 0 Timer unplugs: 0 CPU2 (8,16): Reads Queued: 0, 0KiB Writes Queued: 297, 26,800KiB Read Dispatches: 0, 0KiB Write Dispatches: 287, 26,800KiB Reads Requeued: 0 Writes Requeued: 0 Reads Completed: 0, 0KiB Writes Completed: 0, 0KiB Read Merges: 0, 0KiB Write Merges: 0, 0KiB Read depth: 0 Write depth: 177 IO unplugs: 0 Timer unplugs: 0 CPU3 (8,16): Reads Queued: 0, 0KiB Writes Queued: 418, 24,432KiB Read Dispatches: 0, 0KiB Write Dispatches: 408, 24,448KiB Reads Requeued: 0 Writes Requeued: 0 Reads Completed: 0, 0KiB Writes Completed: 0, 0KiB Read Merges: 0, 0KiB Write Merges: 2, 272KiB Read depth: 0 Write depth: 177 IO unplugs: 0 Timer unplugs: 0 Total (8,16): Reads Queued: 0, 0KiB Writes Queued: 1,562, 117,112KiB Read Dispatches: 0, 0KiB Write Dispatches: 1,521, 117,112KiB Reads Requeued: 0 Writes Requeued: 0 Reads Completed: 0, 0KiB Writes Completed: 1,597, 117,112KiB Read Merges: 0, 0KiB Write Merges: 3, 288KiB IO unplugs: 0 Timer unplugs: 0 Throughput (R/W): 0KiB/s / 2,338KiB/s Events (8,16): 9,287 entries Skips: 0 forward (0 - 0.0%)
btrace
allows
btrace
to visually see the actual amount of recorded data, but it is difficult to figure out which programs are recording.
Definition of programs that record to the drive
iotop
will show the processes that are written to disk and the size of the recorded data.
The most convenient output is provided by the following parameters:
# iotop -obPat
Program Output Example
02:55:47 Total DISK READ : 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE : 30.65 K/s 02:55:47 Actual DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Actual DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s TIME PID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO COMMAND b'02:55:47 753 be/4 root 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.00 % 0.04 % [dmcrypt_write/2]' b'02:55:47 788 be/4 root 72.00 K 18.27 M 0.00 % 0.02 % [btrfs-transacti]' b'02:55:47 15057 be/4 valdikss 216.00 K 283.05 M 0.00 % 0.01 % firefox' b'02:55:47 1588 ?dif root 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.00 % 0.00 % Xorg -nolisten tcp -auth /var/run/sddm/{398f030f-9667-4dff-b371-81eaae48dfdf} -background none -noreset -displayfd 18 -seat seat0 vt1' b'02:55:47 15692 be/4 valdikss 988.00 K 9.41 M 0.00 % 0.00 % python3 /usr/bin/gajim' b'02:55:47 15730 ?dif valdikss 9.07 M 0.00 B 0.00 % 0.00 % telegram-desktop --' b'02:55:47 2174 ?dif valdikss 1840.00 K 2.47 M 0.00 % 0.00 % yakuake' b'02:55:47 19827 be/4 root 16.00 K 896.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:7-events_unbound]' b'02:55:47 19074 be/4 root 16.00 K 480.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:4-btrfs-endio-write]' b'02:55:47 19006 be/4 root 16.00 K 1872.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:1-events_unbound]' b'02:55:47 1429 be/4 root 484.00 K 0.00 B 0.00 % 0.00 % accounts-daemon' b'02:55:47 15820 be/4 valdikss 312.00 K 0.00 B 0.00 % 0.00 % firefox -contentproc -childID 6 -isForBrowser -prefsLen 7894 -prefMapSize 223880 -parentBuildID 20191022164834 -greomni /usr/lib64/firefox/omni.ja -appomni /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/omni.ja -appdir /usr/lib64/firefox/browser 15057 tab' b'02:55:47 2125 ?dif valdikss 0.00 B 92.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % plasmashell' b'02:55:47 1268 be/3 root 0.00 B 4.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % auditd' b'02:55:47 1414 be/4 root 0.00 B 4.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % sssd_nss --uid 0 --gid 0 --logger=files' b'02:55:47 15238 be/4 valdikss 0.00 B 4.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % thunderbird' b'02:55:47 18605 be/4 root 0.00 B 3.19 M 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:0-btrfs-endio-write]' b'02:55:47 18867 be/4 root 0.00 B 96.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:5-btrfs-endio-meta]' b'02:55:47 19070 be/4 root 0.00 B 160.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:2-btrfs-freespace-write]' b'02:55:47 19645 be/4 root 0.00 B 2.17 M 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:3-events_unbound]' b'02:55:47 19982 be/4 root 0.00 B 496.00 K 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/u16:6-btrfs-endio-write]'
Firefox catches your eye, having recorded 283 megabytes in a few minutes of iotop.
Definition of files to be recorded
Information about the process that rapes the disc is good, and the ways in which it is recorded are even better.We use the program
fatrace
, which tracks changes to the file system.
# fatrace -f W
Program Output Example
firefox(15057): CW /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): CW /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): CW /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/usage-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/usage firefox(15057): CW /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/usage firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite-wal firefox(15057): CW /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/https+++habr.com/ls/data.sqlite-journal firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite firefox(15057): W /home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/webappsstore.sqlite
Fatrace is not able to show the amount of recorded data due to the use of a fairly simple tracking of the fact of accessing files through inotify.
It can be seen from the output how the Habr saves my article in the local storage of the browser while I am writing it, as well as the Group Speed Dial extension, which, as it was discovered using fatrace, reads its data every 30 seconds. It reads rather than writes: the CW in front of the file indicates that the file is opened for reading and writing, while creating the file if it is missing (openat is called with the O_RDWR | O_CREAT flag), but does not say which file was actually written any information.
Just in case, to make sure of this, we will use strace, with a filter for file system calls:
strace -yy -e trace=open,openat,close,write -f -p 15057 2>&1 | grep extension
Team output
[pid 20352] openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_CLOEXEC, 0644) = 153</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite> [pid 20352] read(153</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite>, "SQLite format 3\0\20\0\2\2\0@ \0\0\0d\0\0\0\23"..., 100) = 100 [pid 20352] read(153</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite>, "SQLite format 3\0\20\0\2\2\0@ \0\0\0d\0\0\0\23"..., 4096) = 4096 [pid 20352] openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite-wal", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_CLOEXEC, 0644) = 166</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite-wal> … [pid 20352] read(54</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite>, "\0\0\0\r\4\30\4\36\4\35\4\35\4\36\4-\0 \4\20\4!\4'\4\1\4\"\0250 &"..., 4096) = 4096 [pid 20352] read(54</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite>, "\0\0\0\0\1\36P\t\226\250\4\0O\245\320\16:\"\16.\27\0r\245\306>\246\1\t\1q\370"..., 4096) = 4096 [pid 20352] close(77</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite-wal>) = 0 [pid 20352] close(54</home/valdikss/.mozilla/firefox/xyf4vqh2.default/storage/default/moz-extension+++e5c304fb-af40-498a-9ba8-47eb0416e933^userContextId=4294967295/idb/3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eengsairo.sqlite>) = 0
There is not a single call to
write()
, indicating that there is no write to the file.
Determining file system overhead
The big difference iniotop
and
btrace
prompted the idea to test the file system by manually writing data to a file and tracking btrace readings.
If you completely exclude writing to disk by loading into systemd emergency mode and manually writing a couple of bytes of data to an existing file, btrace on an SSD with btrfs reports 3 megabytes of real data being written. A freshly created file system in a 8 GB flash drive records a minimum of 264 KiB when recording one byte.
For comparison, writing a couple of bytes to an ext4 file ends with writing 24 kilobytes of data to disk.
In 2017, Jayashree Mohan, Rohan Kadekodi, and Vijay Chidambaram conducted a study of the write amplification of different file systems , their results for btrfs and ext4 when writing 4 KB are similar to mine.
Conclusion and conclusion
By the described manipulations it was discovered:- Frequent recording state jobs to the printer daemon CUPS printing in / var / cache / cups per minute. The problem was fixed by cleaning / var / spool / cups (although there were no print jobs);
- The fact of reading the database every 30 seconds with the extension Group Speed Dial for Firefox;
- Periodic logging by various performance tracking services in Fedora, which led to the recording of several megabytes of data on btrfs: pmcd.service, pmie.service, pmlogger.service;
- Huge amplification when recording a small amount of data using btrfs.
Conclusion: you should not use btrfs if programs often write a small amount of data (several kilobytes), otherwise it will turn into megabytes of recorded data. Especially true for single-board computers with OS on MicroSD.