Very slow disk performance on HP P410 with RAID1+0

hphp-prolianthp-smart-arrayraidvmware-esxi

I have HP Microserver N54L, until recently i have used integrated software raid without problems.
I have 2x WD Black and 2x WD Red (non-pro) disks for my raid array. I also have SSD directly on the motherboard (not that it matters, just to get all facts straight).

I purchased HP P410 with 256MB memory back with a Battery Back Write Cache module.

I'm using esxi 5.1 and i have one windows virtual machine. In this windows machine i get terrible read speeds (only up to 40-60 MB/s) write speed is kinda OK (around 100MB/s) but still slower than when i used integrated raid.

For example this is copying a large file from raid to ssd http://img.hihi.si/Upload/vYbD.png 🙁

This is my raid controller and array info

~ # esxcli   hpssacli cmd -q "ctrl all show config detail"

Smart Array P410 in Slot 1
 Bus Interface: PCI
 Slot: 1
 Serial Number: PACCRCN80ZK1TXH
 Cache Serial Number: PACCQID11090TB9
 RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Disabled
 Controller Status: OK
 Hardware Revision: C
 Firmware Version: 6.60
 Rebuild Priority: Medium
 Expand Priority: Medium
 Surface Scan Delay: 15 secs
 Surface Scan Mode: Idle
 Queue Depth: Automatic
 Monitor and Performance Delay: 60  min
 Elevator Sort: Enabled
 Degraded Performance Optimization: Disabled
 Inconsistency Repair Policy: Disabled
 Wait for Cache Room: Disabled
 Surface Analysis Inconsistency Notification: Disabled
 Post Prompt Timeout: 0 secs
 Cache Board Present: True
 Cache Status: OK
 Cache Ratio: 50% Read / 50% Write
 Drive Write Cache: Enabled
 Total Cache Size: 256 MB
 Total Cache Memory Available: 144 MB
 No-Battery Write Cache: Enabled
 Cache Backup Power Source: Batteries
 Battery/Capacitor Count: 1
 Battery/Capacitor Status: OK
 SATA NCQ Supported: True
 Number of Ports: 2 Internal only
 Encryption Supported: False
 Driver Name: HP HPSA
 Driver Version: 5.0.0
 Driver Supports HP SSD Smart Path: False

 Array: A
  Interface Type: SATA
  Unused Space: 0  MB
  Status: OK
  Array Type: Data



  Logical Drive: 1
     Size: 1.8 TB
     Fault Tolerance: 1+0
     Heads: 255
     Sectors Per Track: 32
     Cylinders: 65535
     Strip Size: 256 KB
     Full Stripe Size: 512 KB
     Status: OK
     Caching:  Enabled
     Unique Identifier: 600508B1001CC56A2CBC714D023D29CD
     Logical Drive Label: A002F51APACCRCN80ZK1TXH0967
     Mirror Group 0:
        physicaldrive 2I:0:5 (port 2I:box 0:bay 5, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
        physicaldrive 2I:0:6 (port 2I:box 0:bay 6, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
     Mirror Group 1:
        physicaldrive 2I:0:7 (port 2I:box 0:bay 7, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
        physicaldrive 2I:0:8 (port 2I:box 0:bay 8, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
     Drive Type: Data
     LD Acceleration Method: Controller Cache

  physicaldrive 2I:0:5
     Port: 2I
     Box: 0
     Bay: 5
     Status: OK
     Drive Type: Data Drive
     Interface Type: SATA
     Size: 1 TB
     Native Block Size: 512
     Firmware Revision: 05.01D05
     Serial Number:      WD-WCATR3871895
     Model: ATA     WDC WD1002FAEX-0
     SATA NCQ Capable: True
     SATA NCQ Enabled: True
     Current Temperature (C): 40
     Maximum Temperature (C): 53
     PHY Count: 1
     PHY Transfer Rate: 3.0Gbps

  physicaldrive 2I:0:6
     Port: 2I
     Box: 0
     Bay: 6
     Status: OK
     Drive Type: Data Drive
     Interface Type: SATA
     Size: 1 TB
     Native Block Size: 512
     Firmware Revision: 05.01D05
     Serial Number:      WD-WCATR3904352
     Model: ATA     WDC WD1002FAEX-0
     SATA NCQ Capable: True
     SATA NCQ Enabled: True
     Current Temperature (C): 40
     Maximum Temperature (C): 44
     PHY Count: 1
     PHY Transfer Rate: 3.0Gbps

  physicaldrive 2I:0:7
     Port: 2I
     Box: 0
     Bay: 7
     Status: OK
     Drive Type: Data Drive
     Interface Type: SATA
     Size: 1 TB
     Native Block Size: 4096
     Rotational Speed: 5400
     Firmware Revision: 01.01A01
     Serial Number:      WD-WCC4J4478782
     Model: ATA     WDC WD10EFRX-68P
     SATA NCQ Capable: True
     SATA NCQ Enabled: True
     Current Temperature (C): 32
     Maximum Temperature (C): 34
     PHY Count: 1
     PHY Transfer Rate: 3.0Gbps

  physicaldrive 2I:0:8
     Port: 2I
     Box: 0
     Bay: 8
     Status: OK
     Drive Type: Data Drive
     Interface Type: SATA
     Size: 1 TB
     Native Block Size: 4096
     Firmware Revision: 01.01A01
     Serial Number:      WD-WCC1U5116513
     Model: ATA     WDC WD10EFRX-68J
     SATA NCQ Capable: True
     SATA NCQ Enabled: True
     Current Temperature (C): 30
     Maximum Temperature (C): 36
     PHY Count: 1
     PHY Transfer Rate: 3.0Gbps


SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model  SRC 8x6G) 250
  Device Number: 250
  Firmware Version: RevC
  WWID: 50014380118D3DBF
  Vendor ID: PMCSIERA
  Model:  SRC 8x6G

Any ideas what to do? Do i need to provide more information?

Best Answer

  • You're mixing 4k-sector (Advanced Format) disks and 512-byte drives in the same array. That's one consideration.
  • WD Red and Black disk drives have different characteristics.
  • What type of performance are you expecting? ESXi isn't compatible with software RAID, so are you comparing the right things? If you're comparing another OS to ESXi, that's not a valid comparison.
  • Adjust your RAID controller cache ratio to be biased towards writes, not 50:50.
  • The MicroServer is a slow system.
Related Topic