>>> ,
>> 
>> Reads are always served from the slow device, and writes over a certain size 
>> go there directly.
> 
> My understanding from dm-cache docs was that no, in plain dm-cache, reads hit 
> the cache drive. For the behavior you describe (only writes use the cache), 
> you'd need dm-writecache, which is another mode for dm-cache.

Clarify: I was talking about conventional offloaded WAL+DB, not dm-cache. 

> 
> As for the write size, I guess it's configurable, but I don't think it'll be 
> an issue for my case: what I'm after is preventing the constant chatter or 
> small random writes that hit the drive with a sustained workload. The 
> occasional big write should not matter too much.

That’s what I was after.  One potential strategy is fronting coarse-IU QLC 
SSDs, in which case one would reeeealy want the writes to the backing device to 
be an aligned, even multiple of the IU.  


> 
>> I've seen use-cases where the hassle of WAL+DB offload doesn't actually make 
>> an appreciable improvement.
> 
> I guess it really depends on the drive you have. For HDDs it's a no brainer 
> as far as I understand it,

I’ve worked with an HDD cluster that added colocated HDDs to existed offloaded 
HDDs.  40% of the OSDs were colocated and nobody noticed.  There are no doubt 
workloads where it would make a bigger difference.  


> but for SSDs you'd hit diminishing returns, even with NVMe WAL+DB.

Absolutely.  And new spend on SAS / SATA SSDs these days is a bad idea.  They 
are disappearing from the market.  

> It's a case where transparent caching of block with an NVMe would make an 
> improvement where WAL+DB does not
Yep


> 
> Alexis
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