I tried using an fstab option to make ext4 sync its journal data less often, but found that Ubuntu's power management scripts were overriding my change. After a bit of reading and poking around, I created /etc/pm/config.d/10_journal_commit_time containing this line:
JOURNAL_COMMIT_TIME_AC=30
This sets the journal sync interval to 30 seconds when on AC power, which I feel is safe on my system because I'm using a UPS.
After I made this change, stopped my kernel from updating atime on every file access, and rebooted, disk activity settled down to a tolerable rate. It's now more like what I expected based on the applications I use.
I tried using an fstab option to make ext4 sync its journal data less often, but found that Ubuntu's power management scripts were overriding my change. After a bit of reading and poking around, I created /etc/pm/ config. d/10_journal_ commit_ time containing this line:
JOURNAL_ COMMIT_ TIME_AC= 30
This sets the journal sync interval to 30 seconds when on AC power, which I feel is safe on my system because I'm using a UPS.
After I made this change, stopped my kernel from updating atime on every file access, and rebooted, disk activity settled down to a tolerable rate. It's now more like what I expected based on the applications I use.