topic Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

Andreas Bürgel — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:23:49 GMT

Hi,

i've installed an P212 Zero Memory on an ML110 G6 with 2 SATA2 Harddrives, using a Raid1.

I get an read-performance from about 50MB/s! This is horrible... Is this normal for this controller?

What could i expect for about when upgrading with a 256MB Cache Modul?

Write-Performance is also bad, but this doesn't matter ;)

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

juan quesada — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:33:22 GMT

very slow indeed.
battery and cache will definitely improve speed, remember to set 100% read 0% writte ratio.
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13203_div/13203_div.html

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

Andreas Bürgel — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:27:48 GMT

Hmm, do you think i will get better read-performance using the onboard raid controller?

ot which other hardware raid controller would you suggest? i only need raid1...

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

gregersenj — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:46:40 GMT

It's not likely that the embedded controller will perform better.
But it will require a re-installation, and that could fix the problem, if the OS installation is corruptet.

How do you measure the performance?

What do you expect?

Is the controller still initializing in the background?

Read this:
http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1431497

BR
/jag

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

Andreas Bürgel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:58:43 GMT

hi and thanks for your answer!

i don't think the os is corrput. there is nothing in the eventlog and the os behaves normally. it has also been fresh installed 5 days ago...

for performance testing i've used HDTACH...

the controller isn't rebuilding or so!

i've expected somthing about 100MB/s above! there are sata2 disks that offer 150/300MB/s

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

Andreas Bürgel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:04:31 GMT

sorry, disks offer systained transfer rate from 113MB/s

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

gregersenj — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:29:11 GMT

I do believe, that it isn't the controller that is slow.
It's designed to handle faster disks. So 2 SATA's shouldn't put load on it.

And as you write the sustained transfer rate is 113 MB/sec for the disks.
So it should be possible to get aroud the 100 MB/sec.

Did you read the link?

BR
/jag

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

Andreas Bürgel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:08:26 GMT

yes, i've read the link... do you mean the issue about the drives cache?

i didn't find any possibility to deactivate the drives cache...

or did i misunderstood anything?

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

gregersenj — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 11:52:46 GMT

Sorry for late reply

The drives' Write cache is disable default from HP.

By the way, I don't feel I'm much help for you.
Are you having any progress?

BR
/jag

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

Andreas Bürgel — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:17:39 GMT

hi jag,

thank you for the answer.

the write cache is not the problem, so i don't need to enable it...

i just want to get more read-performance. my avg is about 65MB/s.

in between i tried to connect another drive (with similar technical specifications) directly to the onboard sata using b110i raid with a new os installation, and this gave me about 75MB/s read-performance...

so i think the bad performance is quite usual for the P212 as connecting the drives directly to the onboard sata didn't result in much better values...

i will try to get the 256MB cach module for the p212, maybe this will improve read-performance ;)

what do you think about this?

Re: SmartArray P212 Zero Memory - Bad Performance

gregersenj — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:12:40 GMT

Cache do improve performance.

Beware, if you read/write files larger than the cache, then performance will drop to the actual speed of the disk(s).

BR
/jag