7

I am seeing only 50MB/s reads:

ensnare@box:~$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda
[sudo] password for ensnare:

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   4592 MB in  2.00 seconds = 2296.48 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  192 MB in  3.90 seconds =  49.24 MB/sec

The array is already rebuilt and operational. Is this kind of slow performance normal? Anything I can do to make it faster? There weren't too many options in the controller configuration. Thanks.

ensnare
  • 2,132
  • 6
  • 23
  • 39

6 Answers6

8

The short answer is yes, that's the level of performance you should expect to see from the H200.

The long answer: The H200 is the old SAS 6iR with SATA 6Gb/s support. It doesn't have the usual features you'd see on a RAID card (battery backup unit, onboard caching, RAID5/6 support). The cache determines how fast your RAID array is (along w/ the # of spindles and type of drive), so no cache = slow performance. Add the 7200RPM SATA drives (which are slow compared to a 10-15k RPM SAS drive) and that's the level of performance you can expect.

zippy
  • 1,708
  • 3
  • 18
  • 36
  • 1
    I don't disagree that the H200 is a pretty disappointing card, but most *single* current-gen 7200RPM SATA drives can do 70-90 MB/s streaming reads, so it's pretty funny that a RAID of them would do worse. – hobbs May 26 '11 at 21:10
3

Please take a look at the following info:

The default cache policy on a physical disk is Enabled in SATA drives and Disabled on SAS drives. When physical disk caching is Enabled, disk I/O performance is improved, but a power outage or equipment failure might result in data loss or corruption.

NOTE: It is recommended that you use a backup power source for all Dell production systems.

On a PERC H200 card, caching is forced to be disabled for all physical disks configured into a virtual disk, regardless of the drive type and default drive settings.”

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/storlink/h200/en/ug/html/features.htm

Sasha
  • 31
  • 1
  • 1
    Bulk read speed (like hdparm -T) is not significantly affected by the drive's nor the controller's cache. – Dan Pritts Sep 13 '12 at 14:05
1

Maybe change the stripe size, depending on what your storing.
Is cache turned off? I have 4 1TB Western Digital Enterprise 7200 RPM drives on a 3Ware 95500-SX and my hdparm results are

zeus:/home/Kendall # hdparm -tT /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
Timing cached reads:   1262 MB in  2.00 seconds = 630.86 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:  128 MB in  3.03 seconds =  42.30 MB/sec

That's my development server, though, which is under some load. I'd expect higher numbers if the array was idle, like I suspect yours is.

Just for some perspective, I don't exactly know if your buffered reads are "slow" but I put mine up for comparison.

Kendall
  • 1,043
  • 12
  • 24
  • Your 3Ware controller is quite a bit faster than the H200, has more features, and is built to inter-operate with a variety of HD vendors (where the H200 is built basically for Dell drives only). – Chris S May 26 '11 at 18:53
1

It seems there may be a potential "fix" here but I have not tried it myself:

http://blog.slucas.fr/en/tips/esxi-perc-h200-slow

wescb
  • 11
  • 1
1

The H200 controller disables all disk caching built into the drives by default.

If the server has battery backup you can enable basic drive caching on the Logical Volumes without risk.

Goto www.LSI.com (The controller is made by LSI) and download and install MegaRAID Storage Manager.

Highlight the Virtual Raid Volume, right click, properties. Enable Cache and save.

You have to do this on every logical raid volume.

Your performance difference is incredible.

greedj
  • 61
  • 1
  • 2
0

Here's THE best solution if going to a H700 isnt possible. Enable cache directly from the firmware. YOU MUST be running on a battery backup or if power goes out you could be hosed by enabling the cache. Below is a tutorial explaining the full process to do so.

http://www.1337admin.org/windows-server/windows-server-2012-r2/dell-h200-raid-controller-speed-hack/

Brad
  • 250
  • 1
  • 11