Optimizing fsync performance with dynamic queue depth adaptation

Existing flash storage devices such as universal flash storage and solid state disk support command queuing to improve storage I/O bandwidth. Command queuing allows multiple read/write requests to be pending in a device queue. Because multi-channel and multi-way architecture of flash storage devices can handle multiple requests simultaneously, command queuing is an indispensable technique for utilizing parallel architecture. However, command queuing can be harmful to the latency of fsync system call, which is critical to application responsiveness. We propose a dynamic queue depth adaptation technique, which reduces the queue depth if user application is expected to send fsync calls. Experiments show that the proposed technique reduces the fsync latency by 79% on average compared to the original scheme.