topic HP ML350 G6 Disk Performance in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

HP ML350 G6 Disk Performance

Omrits — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:32:38 GMT

Hey everyone,

Our disk performance in our new hp ML350 G6 machine are very bad.

Restoring SQL DB of 30GB takes around 4 hours!! restoring the same DB on Core 2 PC with Windows 7 takes around 25-40 minutes.

Main Hardware Spec:

proc: 2xIntel E5620 QC 2.4GHz

ram: 32GB (PC3-10600 R-9)

RAID controller: Smart Array P410/256 MB controller

disk: 2xSATA 1TB 7.2K HP MDL (Configured as RAID 1)

BIOS: disk write cache disabled

Software:

VMware ESXi 4.1

Clean Windows 2008 R2 + SP1 VM guest (no AV, FW and such)

SCSI controller configued as LSI Logic SAS

2 Virtual disks for the VM guest- one configured as SCSI and one configured as IDE

Problems:

1. Copying large files in the SCSI drive "eats" all the Free memory and the speed is very low- around 2MB/s

2. Copying large files in the IDE drive doesnt "eat" all the machine memory but still the speed is very low.

Is it related to the disk writing cache mode?

Is it because of the RAID controller we ordered is without BBCW or / and FBCW?

something else maybe?

thanks!!

Re: HP ML350 G6 Disk Performance

SMR — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:55:09 GMT

Having the array accelerator disabled will degrade your performance a great deal, you can enable it without buying the battery option to simply test the performance, be warned that you run the disk of data loss in the case of a power outage (that's when the battery plays in). Use the ACU from smartstart to enable it.

Give it a shot and let us know.

Re: HP ML350 G6 Disk Performance

Erdogan Temur — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:37:19 GMT

Hi,
Currently the server is working to 0 write / 100 read.
Cache module add on the write cache battery and than array accelator is 50/50 or 25/75 set.

462969-B21 : HP 650 mAh P-Series Battery
NOTE: To enable BBWC on the 256MB cache.