[VLAN] Slow device creation + procfs overflows

[carlos at fisica.ufpr.br (Carlos Carvalho)]

Mike Ireton (mike-vlan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote on 27 January 2007 22:37:
 >    I have a simple script which creates 2000 vlan devices and, damm, it 
 >runs slow! Device creation can be as slow as 2 devices per second and 
 >there are very noticable pauses during  execution. I have noted also 
 >that if I access certain /proc files during this time, device creation 
 >halts completely. The speed of device creation does not appear related 
 >to the number done or index - indeed, the first 20 devices are just as 
 >slow as the last 20.

I use about 70 here and it's fast. I do creation and ifconfig
sequentially.  Maybe it's dependent on the ethernet card? I'm using
2.6.17 onwards and Marvell chips, with both sklin and skge drivers.

 >I suppose it's not too awfully important and doesn't really have
 >much overall impact because device creation is such an infrequent
 >event even on a very busy network server such as dedicated pppoe
 >box. I just thought I'd bring it up for comment.

Except if your server takes too long to boot...