How to view FC HBA Queue Depth?

[Dennis L W Thury]

I have a Windows 2003 Server(x64) that is having apparent IO problems to its EVA storage. This server has QLogic QMH2462 FCHBAs. I'm trying to figure how to view/monitor/report the queue depth on these HBAs (can/should I increase the HBA queue depth?). I've looked at SANSurfer, it can show IOPs, Total IOs, error counts, etc. but no queue depth, that I've seen.

Can any one point me to an appropriate utility/tool?

Thanks,
Denny

[Marcus Schack]

Have you tried using EVAPerf? Check your Command View disk.

[Marcus Schack]

This may help.

[Dennis L W Thury]

Doesn't EVAperf give performance info from the EVA's view point? I'm looking for the HBA queue depth from the Server's side? If, as I suspect, the HBA is the bottleneck getting the IO requests to the EVA, EVAperf will never see them!! Am I missing something?

[Marcus Schack]

Ok, here is a doc from Qlogic, it is for EMC, but I think it might help you.

http://www.qlogic.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Solutions/EMC/white_papers/User%27s%20Guide%20-%20QLogic%20FC%20HBA%20in%20an%20EMC%20Environment.pdf#31

[Marcus Schack]

And another thread that might help.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1283944

[Marcus Schack]

And.... check here....

http://driverdownloads.qlogic.com/QLogicDriverDownloads_UI/SearchByProduct.aspx?ProductCategory=39&Product=935&Os=172

[Dennis L W Thury]

The EMC article talks about ESX/VMware; I had already seen it.

The following suggesting talks about if/how to change queue depth paramters, NOT how to view current que depths; I had already been there too.

The 3rd URL, another one I had already visited, is the QLogic driver download page, and contains pointers to SANSurfer; which I mentioned above, does not show/report queue depth information.

[Marcus Schack]

Ok. Sorry but that is as far as I can go.

[Rafiq Ahamed K]

Denny, I donâ t know about 2462, but with 23xx cards I remember we can get into Qlogic Card BIOS while booting (by pressing F8 I guess) and you should be able to see a parameter under advanced settings called as "Execution Throttle". You can increase it and see.

The execution throttle value indicates to the firmware how many inputs/outputs (I/Os) per port can be active at any point in time.

http://download.qlogic.com/boot_code/35440/QLx23xxbiosreadme.pdf

This parameter may not have desired effects if not used according to guidance.

[Dennis L W Thury]

Thanks, Some good info, but I don't yet know if I want/need to change any HBA parameters.

I'm looking for a way to monitor/watch/record the what's happening on these HBAs while IO is happening; SANSurfer can get me some info (IOPS, IO counts, etc.).

I'm also interested in things:
How busy is the HBA?
What is the service time for each IO?
Are any IOs being queued? How many?
etc. etc.j

[Rafiq Ahamed K]

You should be able to see some of these metrics using HP storage essential product. Or you should check if qlogic has any SMI-S provider for performance data collection. That will have many of these metrics calculated.

Rafiq

[Anastasio Guevara]

Check this:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/11582/eng/readme.txt