HP Smart Array B140i ESXi slow performance

[hoki1881]

Hi again, here is my experience so far:

I had to deliver 1 ML-30 with Hot-Swap Drivebay and 2 DL-120 Gen9 with Non-Hot-Plug LFF.

Performance with 4TB SHDDs (WD) was terrible, no matter what I did not manage to get more than 4-6 MBs/sec after OS-Caches were filled. Tested with ESXi 5.5 / 6.0, using all driver tips and BIOS Settings I could imagine.

ML-30 runs now with P440/4G Controller and battery pack, HPE custumized 6.0 ISO and write speed is 200+ MB/sec (4 Drives RAID5). Okay so far.
EDIT: After some heavy traffic to a vm on this host transfer rates (write) go down to about 11MB/sec. Darn.

DL-120 was a nightmare. HPE-Salesman delivered multiple times Hardware and cables that did not fit (okay, it's eventually unusual to use a non-hot-swap cage), P440/4G did not work because noone was able to deliver the needed cable (this wide sas-connector to the controller <-> 4 or 8 S-ATA-connectors). Support on HPs side ended since I wanted to use non HP-Disks with high capacity to keep the costs as low as possible.

So another try: One Disk in SATA-Mode connected with the internal b140i, the other disks connected with a non HPE RAID-Controller (just pick one from VMWare-compatibility-list that suits your needs). In my configuration I gladfully could assign this additional controller to one VM only, so I could use the standard esxi-image and use the controller pass-thru. Performance of the RAID-System is as expected, so I am happy with that, too (and my customers).

BUT GUESS WHAT:
The boot disks is are HPE 1TB SATA hdd's I had in storage (by pure chance).
Performace read: 90+MB/sec, write: 70+MB/sec, (mayby better). Internal reminder for me: if I want to use the b140i, use HPE disks.
Okay, I don't further comment on that one.

If you read between the lines you can see it took a long time until these servers got into productive run. I ordered additional hardware for about $ 2k (sure, most of it can be returned because of wrong advise). I'm building HP Server Systems for 15+ years now and I _never_ had any of these multiple problems.

Looks like with VMWare you are forced to use HPE-branded Harddisks or do some non-HP controller solution.

I hope this leads one or another of you in the right direction to solve the problems you have hoki1881.

Greetings!

[support_s]

System recommended content:

1. Notice: (Revision) VMware - HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i Controller Is Not Compliant With Certain HPE Gen9 Platforms Running VMware ESXi 7.0

2. Advisory: HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i Controller - HPE Servers Running VMware ESXi 6.0/6.5/6.7 and Configured With an HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i Controller May Experience a PSOD When Updating to Hpdsa Driver Version 5.5.0.66

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[ksram]

Hi @hoki1881,

Good day!

Thank you for the Post.

We understand your concerns and thank you for your suggestions / your inputs as well.

Not only for VMware, we always recommend to use HPE Drives for efficient functioning.

Also would request to check with the Consultation Team and discuss the requirements to choose the best Configuration.

Thank you
RamKS