[Lustre-discuss] Tar on Lustre

[Peter Grandi]

> We have a setup that requires a lot of tar being used on
> lustre.

That's your choice, however audacious it may be.

[ ... ]

> tar to extract a 5.2GB file on to the lustre system - 3m22s
> tar to extract the same 5.2GB file on to local disk - 1m06s

> tat to create a 5.2GB tar file on the lustre system - 4m10s
> tar to create the same 5.2GB file on to local disk - 2m21s

This depends a lot on what is inside the 'tar' file (and the
settings for the local file system), which do not seem important
to you, but really matter.

But in general this is not surprising. It is a FAQ: MDS updates
involve latency.

As its structure with a number of object/strip servers and many
file clients suggests, Lustre is meant to do well on parallel
workloads reading/writing large files. That involves tradeoffs.

[ ... ]