@@ -116,31 +116,30 @@ There are three options available, and all of them take bytes:
"refcount-cache-size": maximum size of the refcount block cache
"cache-size": maximum size of both caches combined
-There are two things that need to be taken into account:
+There are a few things that need to be taken into account:
- Both caches must have a size that is a multiple of the cluster size
(or the cache entry size: see "Using smaller cache sizes" below).
- - If you only set one of the options above, QEMU will automatically
- adjust the others so that the L2 cache is 4 times bigger than the
- refcount cache.
+ - The default L2 cache size is 8 clusters or 1MB (whichever is more),
+ and the minimum is 2 clusters (or 2 cache entries, see below).
-This means that these options are equivalent:
+ - The default (and minimum) refcount cache size is 4 clusters.
- -drive file=hd.qcow2,l2-cache-size=2097152
- -drive file=hd.qcow2,refcount-cache-size=524288
- -drive file=hd.qcow2,cache-size=2621440
+ - If only "cache-size" is specified then QEMU will assign as much
+ memory as possible to the L2 cache before increasing the refcount
+ cache size.
-The reason for this 1/4 ratio is to ensure that both caches cover the
-same amount of disk space. Note however that this is only valid with
-the default value of refcount_bits (16). If you are using a different
-value you might want to calculate both cache sizes yourself since QEMU
-will always use the same 1/4 ratio.
+Unlike L2 tables, refcount blocks are not used during normal I/O but
+only during allocations and internal snapshots. In most cases they are
+accessed sequentially (even during random guest I/O) so increasing the
+refcount cache size won't have any measurable effect in performance
+(this can change if you are using internal snapshots, so you may want
+to think about increasing the cache size if you use them heavily).
-It's also worth mentioning that there's no strict need for both caches
-to cover the same amount of disk space. The refcount cache is used
-much less often than the L2 cache, so it's perfectly reasonable to
-keep it small.
+Before QEMU 2.12 the refcount cache had a default size of 1/4 of the
+L2 cache size. This resulted in unnecessarily large caches, so now the
+refcount cache is as small as possible unless overridden by the user.
Using smaller cache entries