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Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

 
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cam9269
Regular Advisor

Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Hi Guys,

We are in dire need of advise on what to do to improve the performance for our disk array configuration:

- MAS30-SB
- 6 x 146GB 15KRPM on a RAID 1+0
- 1 x 146GB 15KRPM setup as spare

Out of this configuration, we have ~400GB usable disk space which was assigned to one VG only - VG01

Last Saturday, we imported ~400K of records, which took us about 30Hours to complete.

"sar -d" outputs always averages 95% busy. But doesn't have complain about the "avwait" value which sits mostly on 0.30 to be the max value.

Even today, when I did an uncompress "sar -d" reported 100% busy state throughout the process.

Can you advise us on what to check and which needs to be done to give us better performance?

Thank you.

14 REPLIES 14
cam9269
Regular Advisor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Additional information:

saconfig /dev/cissX output displays:

******************** SmartArray RAID Controller /dev/ciss4 ********************

Auto-Fail Missing Disks at Boot = enabled
Cache Configuration Status = write cache temporarily disabled (code=1)
Cache Ratio = 75% Read / 25% Write

I think we need to enable 'write cache' on this box. Don't we? and how can we do that?

Thanks!
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Hi,

If the write cache is disabled, then you probably haven't got the BBWC (Battery Backed Write Cache) option installed on your SmartArray controller.

Try installing that, and you write performance should improve greatly. If it is already installed, maybe the battery is discharged, or faulty.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Rob
cam9269
Regular Advisor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Hi Rob,

We actually have the BBWC installed, I just discovered that it has a FAILED status on it, I've replaced it a couple of times already, the thing is, after replacing it with a new one, it gives an "OK" status, also enable write cache, but after a while - say 5 minutes, the battery status returns to a "FAILED" state, and write cache is temporarily disabled.

I did a couple of research and it was advised that I upgrade SA6402's firmware above 2.34 - which is my current FW version, because this happens on FW versions lower than 2.48. I tried getting the FW, but the URL which points to it is unuseful.

Thanks.

Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

What OS are you running ?

There's a fair few downloads from here:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/family/model/5618.html?submit.y=4&submit.x=7тМй=en&cc=us

Cheers,
Rob
cam9269
Regular Advisor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Hi Rob,

I'm on HP-UX 11.11, I've seen that site, the URL which points to cyborgXXX.gz says file does not exist.

Would you know any other sources I can get the firmware from?

Regards
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

cam9269
Regular Advisor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Thanks for this Rob, I am able to download the file, another question, how do I get to the EFI prompt? Sorry for questions like these, I am a newbie with these kinds of technology.

Regards
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

No idea !

You might be better off asking in the Integrity forum here:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/categoryhome.do?categoryId=275

Just checking, it is an Integrity server isn't it ?

Cheers,
Rob
cam9269
Regular Advisor

Re: Slow Disk Performance on an MSA30-SB

Hi Rob, it is an RP4440 (dunno if this is integrity). Anyways, I managed to apply the firmware this morning using 'sautil'.

But the problem did not go away. This afternoon I swapped batteries with another SA6402 and it turned out I was replacing the wrong battery module. Right now I think I've got the proper setup for the battery, but when I checked, the battery status is "BELOW REFERENCE VOLTAGE"... The cache module's LED indicators are on a steady green light which tells me that: "The cache batteries are charging."

My question is, do you have an idea how long does it take to fully charge?

Thanks!