topic System Performance in Operating System - Linux

System Performance

Muhammad Kashif — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 04:52:10 GMT

Environment: Itanium rx4640 is connected with MSA1000 storage using Qlogic 2300 HBA. Red Hat Linux enterprise server 3.0 (64 bit) is installed with update 4 on the server.

Problem Detail: User is complaining for system performance, comparing HP Itanium performance with Itanium of IBM (P4, P5 series) using different commands of unix like cpio,ls,cp etc. After cpio command, System goes for processing & doesnot allow to work on other
session(s)even we can't give simple ls command.During this process system CPU & memory resources are on 100%. Also experiencing slow performance comparatively to IBM one for other tasks performed.Did Any body knows/face these kind of issue,please help.

Re: System Performance

Piergiacomo Perini — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 06:00:46 GMT

Hi Muhammad,

i have not direct experience on this kind of platform/os, but hanging around with google
i find this
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=120262
that talking about specific driver but then
redirect to
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2004-550.html
where the solution step is , be carefully,
to update kernel.

In my opinion this can be a road to follow.

regards

Re: System Performance

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:54:16 GMT

Shalom Muhammad,

I recommend patching the system up fully and making sure the MSA1000 has firmware of 4.48 or above.

SEP

Re: System Performance

Ted Buis — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:18:46 GMT

Use top, iostat, and vmstat to see the nature of the bottleneck. It could be memory, disk I/O, or CPU, so until you know which it is hard to comment. Is the IBM using an MSA1000 for storage? If not, what is it using? How much memory is on each system. What are the clock rates for the IBM versus Itanium processors? Are there any page outs on the system?

Re: System Performance

Devender Khatana — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 04:01:37 GMT

Hi,

These symptoms can also relate to some misconfigured kernel / file system parameters. Monitor these using iostat /vmstat and sar and then fine tune accordingly. Also a wrong code can cause the system to behave like this.

HTH,
Devender

Re: System Performance

Alan_152 — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 10:23:06 GMT

Hi...

running into the exact same problem here on the exact same platforms. Here's what we've had to do:

run rhel4U2

update the QLA drivers to the HP versions

upgrade the QLA firmware

increase the queue lengths on the MSA to avoid contention

reduce the load drastically on the Brocade switch, or else run reverse hlpa directly between the 4640 and the MSA (not useful for most situations, FWIW).

You might also want to check the Hazard testing forums (hazard.boi.hp.com) for more information.