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Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

 
Vercoutere xavier
Occasional Advisor

Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Hi I have a dedicated DL380 G5 SQL 2008 server configuration with one P400 controller and 2 logical drives (1 mirror set with the sql logfiles and 1 raid 5 set with the sql data files).
It's a dedicated sql 2008 server.
We have performance problems and we strongly suspect the Disk I/O of being the main cause.
What/how can i verfy ?
What are the recommended settings for the p400 array controller (acceleraror ratio..)

thx
Xavier
9 REPLIES 9
Trygve Henriksen
Respected Contributor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Obvious first question...

You have BatteryBacked Cache on the controller?
And write-back cache is enabled for the array?
Vercoutere xavier
Occasional Advisor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Present Yes
Cache Status Enabled
Accelerator Ratio 25% Read /75% Write
Total Memory on Controller 256 MB
Battery Pack Count 1
Battery Status OK

extra info :

Controller Smart Array P400
Bus Interface PCI Express
Controller Location Slot 1

RAID 6 (ADG) status Enabled
Hardware Revision D
Firmware Version 4.06
Rebuild Priority Medium
Expand Priority Medium
Current Surface Scan Delay 15 sec
Number of Arrays 2
Number of Logical Drives 2
Number of Physical Drives 8
Physical Drives Attached to Port 1I Box 1 : Bay 5, 146 GB (SAS)
Box 1 : Bay 6, 146 GB (SAS)
Box 1 : Bay 7, 146 GB (SAS)
Box 1 : Bay 8, 146 GB (SAS)

Physical Drives Attached to Port 2I Box 1 : Bay 1, 72 GB (SAS)
Box 1 : Bay 2, 72 GB (SAS)
Box 1 : Bay 3, 146 GB (SAS)
Box 1 : Bay 4, 146 GB (SAS)

All Physical Drives Assigned Yes

Trygve Henriksen
Respected Contributor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Have you considered changing the cache ratio?
(Most DB operations are read, not write)

Is this a new install, or an older install where the problem has shown up after a while?
Vercoutere xavier
Occasional Advisor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Hi,

thx for the quick replies

yes i was considering change the value to 50/50 or even 75/25 but before doing that i wanted to have some advice from experts

initially we did not have the performance problem but the load wasn't that high either

extra question : can the amount of cache be upgraded on this controller ? and does it make sense to do that ?
Trygve Henriksen
Respected Contributor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Yes, and YES!

I KNOW there's a 512MB module for it, at least.
(We believe in 'overkill' at the office if the part isn't too expensive compared to the 'normal' part... )

How much memory do you have in the server?
Vercoutere xavier
Occasional Advisor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

extra info : the db is not used by a typical website with a lot of luukups, searches,...etc.

ram in the server : 3GB
Michael A. McKenney
Respected Contributor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

Its the nature of RAID 5 with SQL. If your SQL server has alot of writes, it also has alot of parity calculations to do. SQL writes small amount of data each time but each write needs a new parity calculation. I only do RAID 10 on SQL Servers.
Vercoutere xavier
Occasional Advisor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

unfortunateley, i can't switch to raid 10
Vercoutere xavier
Occasional Advisor

Re: Proliant ML380 G5 - P400 controller - SQL 2008

i'm also planning to migrate to another server
should i foresee multiple array controllers (one per set of disks ) and/or what kind of array controllers in a DL386 G6 ?