'\" t
.\"     Title: vfs_aio_pthread
.\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.76.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 02/24/2015
.\"    Manual: System Administration tools
.\"    Source: Samba 4.0
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "VFS_AIO_PTHREAD" "8" "02/24/2015" "Samba 4\&.0" "System Administration tools"
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.SH "NAME"
vfs_aio_pthread \- implement async I/O in Samba vfs using a pthread pool
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\ 'u
vfs objects = aio_pthread
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
This VFS module is part of the
\fBsamba\fR(7)
suite\&.
.PP
The
aio_pthread
VFS module enables asynchronous I/O for Samba on platforms which have the pthreads API available, without using the Posix AIO interface\&. Posix AIO can suffer from severe limitations\&. For example, on some Linux versions the real\-time signals that it uses are broken under heavy load\&. Other systems only allow AIO when special kernel modules are loaded or only allow a certain system\-wide amount of async requests being scheduled\&. Systems based on glibc (most Linux systems) only allow a single outstanding request per file descriptor which essentially makes Posix AIO useless on systems using the glibc implementation\&.
.PP
To work around all these limitations, the aio_pthread module was written\&. It uses a pthread pool instead of the internal Posix AIO interface to allow read and write calls to be process asynchronously\&. A pthread pool is created which expands dynamically by creating new threads as work is given to it to a maximum of 100 threads per smbd process\&. To change this limit see the "aio num threads" parameter below\&. New threads are not created if idle threads are available when a new read or write request is received, the new work is given to an existing idle thread\&. Threads terminate themselves if idle for one second\&.
.PP
Note that the smb\&.conf parameters
aio read size
and
aio write size
must also be set appropriately for this module to be active\&.
.PP
This module MUST be listed last in any module stack as the Samba VFS pread/pwrite interface is not thread\-safe\&. This module makes direct pread and pwrite system calls and does NOT call the Samba VFS pread and pwrite interfaces\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
Straight forward use:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
        \fI[cooldata]\fR
	\m[blue]\fBpath = /data/ice\fR\m[]
	\m[blue]\fBaio read size = 1024\fR\m[]
	\m[blue]\fBaio write size = 1024\fR\m[]
	\m[blue]\fBvfs objects = aio_pthread\fR\m[]
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
aio_pthread:aio num threads = INTEGER
.RS 4
Limit the maximum number of threads per smbd that will be created in the thread pool to service IO requests\&.
.sp
By default this is set to 100\&.
.RE
.SH "VERSION"
.PP
This man page is correct for version 4\&.0 of the Samba suite\&.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell\&. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed\&.