Linux Change The I/O Scheduler For A Hard Disk

ow do I change the I/O scheduler for a particular hard disk without rebooting my Linux server system?

CFQ [cfq] (Completely Fair Queuing) is an I/O scheduler for the Linux kernel and default under many Linux distributions.

Noop scheduler (noop) is the simplest I/O scheduler for the Linux kernel based upon FIFO queue concept.

Anticipatory scheduler (anticipatory) is an algorithm for scheduling hard disk input/output as well as old scheduler which is replaced by CFQ

Deadline scheduler (deadline) - it attempt to guarantee a start service time for a request.

Task: View Current Disk scheduler

Assuming that your disk name /dev/sda, type:

# cat /sys/block/{DEVICE-NAME}/queue/scheduler
# cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

Sample output:

noop anticipatory deadline [cfq]

Task: Set I/O Scheduler For A Hard Disk

To set a specific scheduler, simply type the command as follows:

# echo {SCHEDULER-NAME} > /sys/block/{DEVICE-NAME}/queue/scheduler

For example, set noop scheduler, enter:

# echo noop > /sys/block/hda/queue/scheduler