ML 110 G5 RAID Performance... PLEASE READ

[ShaunBokenham]

Hello,

I recently bought an ML 110 G5 server with the embedded RAID controller. Before the misery of trying to find the correct drivers to enable the RAID controller I set about installing Windows Server 2003 on a single disk. Installed the database server software too (SQL 2005 express) and recieved pretty good peformance. The application we use has a speed test. Generate, insert, read and delete 2000 rows from the database. BEFORE the RAID was enabled I was achieving 55second tests.

AFTER the RAID was enabled and a fresh install of the Operating System I am achieveing 6 minutes for the same test!!! 6 x Slower performance.

Anyone else experienced such woes or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

TIA!

[u84823]

To be honest the onboard RAID is no better than Windows software RAID anyway. I would suggest either using that or buying a hardware RAID controller for it.

If this is a production server then look to HP Smart Array controllers, if it's a home or test box then a Dell PERC 5i (via eBay) would probably be the most cost effective route.

Which ever route you choose, make sure to get a battery-backed write cache (BBWC).

HTH

[ShaunBokenham]

Thanks for the reply!

I was hoping that because the embedded RAID was not sortware based that it should perform better than the shoftware RAID.

It doesn't seem to bad at the moment but it is dissapointing that it does not perform.

I know the kind of card I need. Thanks for the Info!

Shaun.