Arch Linux

zambotn

Member

Registered: 2016-02-02

Posts: 2

kworker write on my SSD

Hello,
I installed an SSD on my laptop

• Disabled journal on my ext4 partition

• Mount my partitions as relatime, nodiratime options in my fstab

• Moving /tmp and cache directories as tmpfs

• Disable cron service

• Logging systemd into memory

But after all of this i still have a process keeping writing on the hard drive every second or so:

 # iotop -ot 

always give me a kworker/X:Y using some IO and write some kb to the SSD periodically.

How can i understand what that kernel worker is doing? I don't want a process to write on my SSD when my laptop is IDLE

Thanks

--zambotn

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: kworker write on my SSD

Some tips on reducing kworker activity here:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentatio … hreads.txt

Did you know that relatime has been a default mount option since kernel 2.6.30? See mount(8)

If this is a modern production SSD then there really is no point trying to minimise writes -- I even have swap on my Samsung EVO 850

See https://techreport.com/review/27909/the … e-all-dead

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

alphaniner

Member

From: Ancapistan

Registered: 2010-07-12

Posts: 2,810

Re: kworker write on my SSD

• Unless you have a cheap SSD, disabling journal isn't really necessary. Look into recent research into SSD lifespan.

• Most linux filesystems default to relatime

• Arch uses tmpfs for /tmp by default

• Disabling cron would only be meaningful if there are jobs which would involve writes to SSD

• Seems reasonable

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But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
-Lysander Spooner

zambotn

Member

Registered: 2016-02-02

Posts: 2

Re: kworker write on my SSD

Thanks for the info about the SSD life, i also own a Samsung EVO 850. However i still don't get the point of having processes writing every second on the hard drive without a reason: I worked worked installing a GNU/Linux machine on flash memory with asterisk on it: asterisk's logs and configuration on a NFS and i didn't had any unwanted disk IO. However was still "kernel 2.4" or "early 2.6" age.

Last edited by zambotn (2016-02-10 20:56:34)