Overview

OSD Max Scrubs (osd_max_scrubs) is a Ceph configuration parameter that defines how many simultaneous scrub operations an OSD can perform. Scrubbing is Ceph’s data integrity checking mechanism that verifies the consistency of stored data.

Default Configuration

  • Default value: 3 concurrent scrubs per OSD
  • This default is optimized for SSD-based clusters
  • For HDD-based clusters, this value should be reduced to 1

Performance Impact

  1. HDD Characteristics

    • HDDs are mechanical devices with physical seek times
    • Concurrent scrubs cause random I/O patterns
    • Multiple seeks significantly degrade HDD performance
    • Sequential operations are preferred for HDDs
  2. SSD Characteristics

    • No mechanical movement
    • Better handling of parallel operations
    • Can sustain multiple concurrent scrubs without significant performance impact

Configuration Recommendation

For HDD-based clusters:

ceph config set osd osd_max_scrubs 1