Update: August 28, 2018
Posted by Vimm on .
I think I'm getting things under control. Last week I made my new read-ahead cache buffer 30 seconds of data and the disks are finally keeping up. That buffered data has to sit somewhere though so I added more RAM. Now the CPU is straining to process so many buffers so a CPU upgrade should arrive this weekend. Once that's in I'll bump up download speeds, though that may need even more RAM. A 30 second buffer's probably overkill and smaller buffers need less RAM, so I'll keep experimenting. Problem solving's fun!
As many have noticed downloads are still slow or not starting at all. While more bandwidth was added this week, now the disks can't handle the strain. Last night the main server was moved to a new box which holds more disks and has better cooling. Now data's being shuffled to even the strain and mirrors are being made, and this process will continue for many days. In the meantime download speeds will be kept low so downloads should work, but may last a while.