PostMark: A New File System Benchmark

Abstract

Existing file system benchmarks are deficient in portraying performance in the ephemeral small-file regime used by Internet software, especially: electronic mail; netnews; and web-based commerce. PostMark is a new benchmark to measure performance for this class of application. In this paper, PostMark test results are presented and analyzed for both UNIX and Windows NT application servers. Network Appliance Filers (file server appliances) are shown to provide superior performance (via NFS or CIFS) compared to local disk alternatives, especially at higher loads. Such results are consistent with reports from ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who have deployed NetApp filers to support such applications on a large scale.