topic Re: Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks? in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks?

SAKET_5 — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 12:18:56 GMT

Hi All,

Does anyone know of any (HP recommended preferably) tools to isolate disk subsystem performance bottlenecks? We have recently started experiencing long backup windows on a Proliant ML530 server. FTP test indicates slow performance of this server. Note, we have ruled out any problems with the NICs or the network setup of the server. It comes down to the performance of physical disks and/or logical drives. How do we confirm this? Is there a tool to check the performance of each disk. Note, the server has 3 RAID 5 sets (each containing 4*36.4GB Ultra 3 SCSI disks).

The server runs Windows 2000 Server (SP4).

Any response would be appreciated,

Thanks, SAKET!

Re: Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks?

Leon Rosier — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 12:22:52 GMT

You can use the attached tool.

Leon

Re: Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks?

SAKET_5 — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 12:31:34 GMT

Hi Leon,

Thanks for your prompt reply. However, is there any special way to run this .exe?Is there any documentation available on this because on running this application, it says "Not a valid win32 application".

Also, what sort of tests does this tool perform?

Regards,

Re: Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks?

Leon Rosier — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 06:54:58 GMT

This tool checks the throughput of your scsi or ide bus when reading data from disk. It simulates for instance a file by file backup.
It is strange that you get this error message. I ran this program successfully on W2K and WinXP so far. Didn't try it yet on WinNT.
I will give it another try. This time zipped.

Leon

Re: Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks?

SAKET_5 — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 10:19:26 GMT

Hi Leon,

Thanks for sending the file again. This one works like a treat! This tool only seems to test the logical drive and I find that one of my logical drive's performance is really poor as opposed to the other ones. Is there a way you can go about testing the individual physical drives and find the weakest link? The problematic logic drive is a RAID 5 set with 4*36.4Gb Ultra 3 SCSI drives.

Thanks again,

Re: Any tools to isolate disk subsystem bottlenecks?

Leon Rosier — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 15:43:24 GMT

I don't know yet if there is a tool what does that. If you have insight manager running, you can check out the drive parameters. Maybe any strange values there. Also a thing what can slowdown performance is fragmentation of the disk of course.

Leon