ML150 GEN9 POOR PERFORMANCE

[NEXUS256]

I have a big problem while tranfering large files from one drive (usb or ahci sata to raid) in my HP PROLIANT ML150 GEN9. At the beginning we were thinking arround the B140i controler wich has a very poor performance. This controller isa pseudo-raid controller without any memory cache. this is its performance:

After upgrading to smart array p440/4gbFWC performance improved a lot:

Although the improvement the problem was still present:

-When transfering large files, speed drops dramatically after a couple of minutes, and still in 6 or 7 MB/s till the end of the tranfer: 

I tried everything to solve it whith no results:

-CLEAN INSTALL OF WINDOWS 2012R2

-CLEAN INSTALL WINDOWS 2019

-UPGRADE ALL FIRMWARES, ROMS AN DRIVERS OF THE SERVER THROUGH LATEST PROLIANT SERVICE PACK.

Has it happened to someone else? THANKS A LOT!!!

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

Please check the cache ratio in HPE Smart Storage Administrator. User guide for your reference.

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c03909334 

What type of drives are installed in the server? (SAS/SATA) and what specification (6G/12G)?

Are the drives HPE drives or third party?

IOPs of the drives will differ depending on the drive specs, drive types, cache ratio. Please refer below web-link for more information on this.

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getpdf.aspx/a00001287enw.pdf 

[NEXUS256]

Hi!!!

Cache ratio is set 25 % for read 75 % for write.

The drives are TOSHIBA Q300 PRO SATA3 6.0Gbit/s with 550 MB/s and 92.000IOPS read speed and 520 MB/S with 63.000 IOPS on write speed.

Server seems to work correctly  and smooth. But it takes 26 hours to recover a 545 GB VM from a USB 3.0 drive. it means a 6 MB/s write speed. I was thinking on an USB 3.0 problem I tried to connect the drive directly to the controller with the same result.  I tried the same operation over a HPE PROLIANT ML350GEN10 without any problem just 400MB/s transfer from the beginning til  the end. 

[NEXUS256]

More information for experts:

The server has 32Gb ram... in this conditions speed drops start after first 22 or 24 GB of the file transfered. If I left the server with 16 Gb ram speed drops after 11 or 12 first GB. 

Hope someone can help me. Thanks.

[BPSingh]

Things that can be checked. 1. TOSHIBA drives that you are using on the server are 6G drives, you can check the performance with a 12G drive as P440ar is a 12G SAS controller 2. Please test performance with a single drive configured in RAID 0 (since other RAID levels have write penalties) 3. It is recommended on have HPE drives installed. Why? Because they will have HPE released firmware embedded on it. It gives better IO performance. https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04447843 4. Please verify if the DIMMs are popuated as per population guidelines as mentioned in server quickspecs link mentioned above. Also set power profile settings to Maximum Performance in BIOS. Please refer: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04398276 5. If issue persists, please generate logs and log a support case for further investigation.

[NEXUS256]

It doesn't matter what ssd I put on the raid:

I tried just the server without SMART ARRAY P440 installed, only one drive attached to the ahci controller with the same result: transfering from usb 3.0 ssd  starts at 400 MB/s and after a couple of GB speeds drop's to 8MB/s.

Operating system tested: WINDOWS 2008 R2, WINDOWS 2012 R2, WINDOWS 2019, WINDOWS 10!!!!! every time same behavior. It doesn't matter copy direction: from external ssd-usb 3.0 to the raid or raid to usb3.0 ssd. 

It's an anoying behavior...

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

Thank you for the additional information.

Suggesstions:

1. How is the performance when you copy data from one volume to another? (i.e. not copying to or from an external drive).

2. What is the Operating system currently installed?

3 Since you are using P440, please disable RAID on B140i in BIOS and check the results (Set B140 to AHCI).

4. Please check if any missing driver is seen in the device manager. 

5. Though ML150 Gen9 is not in scope for the issue reported however you can still check the below link:

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-a00018022en_us&withFrame 

6. Please check USB 3.0 mode in BIOS

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04398276 

7. Please run SPP 2019.03.0 in online mode, (this will install all the required OEM drivers) and check the results.

If the issue persists, please log a support case for further investigation.

[NEXUS256]

HI!!

I set the B140 to AHCI and I connected a low end ssd to its sata port.

Look at this:

This is the behaviour when try to copy 76GB file fron an USB3.0 SSD to the SSD connected  the AHCI B140i:

This one is when I copy the file from B140i AHCI MODE to P440/4GB RAID 10:

The only way to get the full performance transfer is to use NON-RAID drives. Any other option has an anoying drop of speed. IT DOES'NT MATTER DIRECTION:

1. from USB3.0 to P440/4GB RAID --> SPEED DROP.
2. from P440/4GB to USB3.0 --> SPEED DROP.
3. from USB3.0 to B140i RAID MODE --> SPEED DROP.
4. from B140I (AHCI or RAID) to P440/4GB --> SPEED DROP.
**5. from USB3.0 to B140i AHCI --> SUCCESFUL PERFORMANCE.**

[1]: 
[2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/u4uvs.jpg

[BPSingh]

Please ensure that the device drivers are running on the latest version. 

Please test the results if copying from one logical volume to another created on P440/4GB RAID 

[NEXUS256]

This is perfomance while copying a file from P440/4GB volume to the same volume:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/4hlqK.jpg

Now machine is running 3 VM with only 18% of free memory. Older tests was done without any VM running.