nova/releasenotes/notes/writeback-cache-mode-for-gu...

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---
fixes:
- |
Update the way QEMU cache mode is configured for Nova guests: If the
file system hosting the directory with Nova instances is capable of
Linux's O_DIRECT, use ``none``; otherwise fallback to ``writeback``
cache mode. This improves performance without compromising data
integrity. `Bug 1818847`_.
Context: What makes ``writethrough`` so safe against host crashes is
that it never keeps data in a "write cache", but it calls fsync()
after *every* write. This is also what makes it horribly slow. But
cache mode ``none`` doesn't do this and therefore doesn't provide
this kind of safety. The guest OS must explicitly flush the cache
in the right places to make sure data is safe on the disk; and all
modern OSes flush data as needed. So if cache mode ``none`` is safe
enough for you, then ``writeback`` should be safe enough too.
.. _Bug 1818847: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/1818847