Boost IO Performance

How to boost the IO performance of your Orka VMs.

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Intel Nodes Only

Orka 2.0 introduces Apple ARM-based nodes support where the IO is boosted by default. Therefore, the option --io-boost is applicable only to VMs deployed on Intel nodes. Read more about Apple ARM-based Support to see which commands and options are supported for VMs deployed on Apple ARM-based nodes.

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Quick navigation

Jump to: Defaults | Limitations | Enable IO Boost for existing VM configurations | Enable IO Boost for new VM configurations

When creating a VM configuration, you can choose to disable the IO Boost option. All VMs deployed from this template will run on settings aimed at improving their IO performance.

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IMPORTANT

Keep in mind that, based on your workload, the observable performance boost might vary. For IO-intensive workloads (e.g., multiple or frequent read-write operations), you will notice a significant improvement. For non-IO-intensive workloads, the change might not be noticeable.

You will not experience any performance degradation.

Before you begin, make sure that your Orka environment is updated to Orka 1.5.0 or later.

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Quick command summary

orka vm create-config [--io-boost yes/no]
orka vm create [--io-boost yes/no]
POST /resources/vm/create


Defaults

By default, IO Boost is enabled on the environment level. To disable it for a particular VM configuration, you need to explicitly set the option when creating the configuration.

For VM configurations created with Orka 1.4.3 and earlier, this setting is disabled.

To prepare for the update and to take advantage of the IO performance improvements, consider updating your existing VM configurations.

Limitations

  • IO Boost is applicable only to Mojave 10.14.5 or later. For earlier macOS versions, make sure that IO Boost is disabled to avoid issues. See Defaults.
  • You can disable IO Boost only in direct mode for the Orka CLI, OR via the Orka API.

Enable IO Boost for existing VM configurations

Once you create a VM configuration the IO Boost option cannot be changed. To do so, you need to re-create the VM configuration and explicitly specify the IO Boost during the creation.

Check how to enable IO Boost for new VM configurations.

Disable IO Boost for new VM configurations

Create VM Configuration or VM with IO Boost enabled.

ToolCommand
Orka CLIorka vm create-config -v <NAME> -b <BASE_IMAGE> -c <CPU_COUNT> -C <VCPU_COUNT> --io-boost no -y

OR

orka vm create -v <NAME> -b <BASE_IMAGE> -c <CPU_COUNT> -C <VCPU_COUNT> --io-boost no -y
Orka APIcurl --location --request POST 'http://<orka-api-ip>/resources/vm/create' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --header 'Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>' --data-raw '{ "orka_vm_name": "<NAME>", "orka_base_image": "<BASE_IMAGE>", "orka_image": "<NAME>", "orka_cpu_core": <CPU_COUNT>, "vcpu_count": <VCPU_COUNT>, "io-boost": false }'

To explicitly disable IO Boost, set the --io-boost option to no in the Orka CLI, or io-boost: false in the Orka API.


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