Any tools to isolate disk subsystem performance bottlenecks?

[SAKET_5]

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!

P.S. This thread has been moved from Disk to ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL). - Hp forum Moderator

[Mike Naime]

What hardware is your storage composed of?
I.E. are you SAN attached? Direct attached?
What storage enclosures... Etc.

You told us that you have 12 spindles, but not what they where housed inside of.

[SAKET_5]

The server has a Smart Array 4200 (4 channels) controller which has 4 disks each on two internal channels of the server and 4 disks each on two external channels of the SmartWorks4354T data enclosure.

So, in summary 8 *36.4Gb disks are internal to the server and 8*36.4Gb disks are housed in the external data enclosure mentioned above.All disks are Ultra 3 SCSI.

Regards,

[Bill Costigan]

Windows 2000 includes perfmon. This tool can give you all kinds for disk performance metrics. You select the 'physical disk' category and then things like,

I/Os per sec, disk queue lengths, secs per I/O, etc.

There is also a program diskperf that is used to set the point where physical drives are mnitored, i.e., at the raid controller level or at the physical drive level.

For example, the array controller may be presenting 4 LUNs to the windows OS but it is using 8 spindles. diskperf allows you to set the 4 LUNs as the 'physical drives' to be monitored or the 8 spindles as the 'physical drives'

[Marino Meloni_1]

hi Saket,

you can use these tools:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50460

and read also this:

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=lpg50032

This may be usefull to troubleshoot performance probles

Marino