# Which OS best for file serving? Does file AIO increase performance significantly? **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [August 22, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-best-for-file-serving-does-file-aio-increase-performance-significantly/210979 "2011-08-22T16:58:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-best-for-file-serving-does-file-aio-increase-performance-significantly/210979/1 "2011-08-22T16:58:47Z")
Hi, I’m interested in setting up Nginx server for image serving, mostly small images such as icons or thumbnails. Usually I use Linux, but I understand that file AIO doesn’t work on Linux. A few questions: 1. How much performance increase does file AIO realistically provide for file serving - 10%? 50%? 100%? 2. If the performance increase is significant, which OS do you recommend for file AIO - FreeBSD, NetBSD, Open BSD, OpenSolaris? 3. Is it a steep learning curve moving from Linux to one of the aforementioned OS? Thanks. Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Which OS best for file serving? Does file AIO increase performance...](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,214148,214148#msg-214148)** > > Hi, I'm interested in setting up Nginx server for image serving, mostly small images such as icons or thumbnails. Usually I use Linux, but I understand that file AIO doesn't work on Linux. A few questions: 1) How much performance increase does file... ---
**Author:** ![andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-best-for-file-serving-does-file-aio-increase-performance-significantly/210979/2 "2011-08-23T09:05:55Z")
在 2011-08-22一的 10:58 -0400，Andy写道： > * * * > > nginx mailing list > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [mailman.nginx.org archive](http://mailman.nginx.org/mailman/listinfo/nginx) Why do you think that File AIO not work on GNU/Linux? In nginx website(ABOUT page),it says: "File AIO (FreeBSD 4.3+, Linux 2.6.22+); " – Best regards, Sharl.Jimh.Tsin (From China **Obviously Taiwan INCLUDED** ) Using Gmail? Please read this important notice: [Gmail — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software](http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/jstrap/gmail?10073). ---
**Author:** ![andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-best-for-file-serving-does-file-aio-increase-performance-significantly/210979/3 "2011-08-23T09:51:03Z")
In my experience (very similar usage to you) aio on freebsd made slim to no difference over standard setup on Linux so I stuck with Linux which is what I know best ---
**Author:** ![andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-best-for-file-serving-does-file-aio-increase-performance-significantly/210979/4 "2011-08-23T09:12:06Z")
On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 03:05:01PM +0800, Sharl.Jimh.Tsin wrote: > > file serving - 10%? 50%? 100%? > > > > * * * > > > > nginx mailing list > > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > > [mailman.nginx.org archive](http://mailman.nginx.org/mailman/listinfo/nginx) > > Why do you think that File AIO not work on GNU/Linux? > > In nginx website(ABOUT page),it says: "File AIO (FreeBSD 4.3+, Linux > 2.6.22+); " nginx supports Linux AIO. However, Linux AIO works only together with O\_DIRECT, that means that all I/O must be aligned to sector boundary (usually 512 bytes) and are not cached by the kernel. – Igor S.