MSA1000 - Performance issues

[vdemsky]

I'm having some performance issues with my DL360 G4p with an MSA1000 SAN. I inherited this configuration and it is being used as my primary SQL Server. I started testing to determine how things were performing and the results are leading me to investigate the storage system. I wondered if anyone could read over some of my data and provide some basic insight here -- I'm just looking for someone to point me in the right direction (do I need to change a config, call support etc). I have limited experience with configuring a SAN. I've tried to provide as much information as I can -- please let me know if additional info would help. Any comments or thoughts are appreciated.


ProLiant DL360 G4p
Windows Server 2003
Intel Xeon 3.60 GHz
6 GB Ram

MSA1000
FW: 4.48
Rebuild Priority: Medium
Expand Priority: Low
Current Surface Scan Delay: 3 sec
Number of Arrays: 2
Number of Logical Drives: 2
Number of Physical Drives: 14
Cache Status: Enabled
Accelerator Ratio: 40% Read /60% Write
Read Cache Size: 103 MB
Write Cache Size: 153 MB
Battery Pack Count: 1
Battery Status: OK

I've attached a file with different windows performance counters that I have collected. I'm concerned with the Avg. Disk sec/Read and Avg. Disk sec/Write counters. The Disk Read Bytes/sec and Disk Write Bytes/sec also seem to be very low. I collected a number of other counters during this time so let me know if I should look at a different counter.

Once again. Any help is appreciated. I'm sure troubleshooting this is extremely complex so I understand there is no quick solution. I'd just like some help getting started on the right path.

Thanks.

[IBaltay]

Hi,
it can be also perf tested via the show perf command:
http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01183955/c01183955.pdf

the counters explanation is here:
http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1275913

[vdemsky]

Thank you so much for your reply. I started up the CLI and tried the show perf command. This command seems to return all 0s for me (or 0s in those columns that the other post referenced -- I have the other information at the top). After reading around I tried doing "start perf" and then "show perf" and I'm still getting all 0s. I've been watching it now for around an hour and I'm still getting 0s when I run "show perf". I'm assuming that all 0s is wrong and that I should have some numbers other than 0. Is this correct?

Thanks.

[IBaltay]

Resume

you are probably trying to monitor the standby controller which is doing nothing only waits for the failure of the active controller:
OR
perhaps you did not enable the perf controllers to start to store the counters in the controllers memory

Therefore:
via
show this_controller
show other_controller
a)select the active controller
(not the standbye)

b) enable the perf counters via
start perf
//this will enable the perf counters and the MSA controller will start to collect them in the memory

show perf shows you the perf counters
(they should not be 0)

stop perf disables the perf counters
(at the end of your perf session)

[vdemsky]

Thank you for your reply. I tried show this_controller and show other_controller until I found the one that was "Active" (as displayed in the output). After I ran the command for the one that returned as "Active", I then ran start perf. I waited for around 30 minutes and then ran a show perf. I still had all 0s. Is there something else I need to do to set the monitored controller other than show other_controller (other_controller showed as "Active")?

Thanks for the help.

[IBaltay]

there are several parametres shown after the show perf which are e.g.:
sample interval:
cpu% util:
average command latency:
etc.
and then also the basic logical drive statistics:

you can try also the show perf logical and show perf physical
commands

but surely you should be on the active controlller

[Glenn Strafford]

I know this thread is old but if the original poster still needs any advice on this issue I wanted to add one thing. Upgrading to firmware 5.20 made some good performance improvements for our MSA1000 in an Active/Passive setup.