Smart Array B140i vs P440 performances on RAID5 of HDD (not SSD)

[jau1]

Hello,

I have ML150 Gen9 with integrated Smart Array b140i Software RAID Controller, with 5 x 1TB SATA HP Disks in a RAID5 array. Server is running ESXi 6.7.

R/W performances are poor, especially W on small files (tested from several virtual machines on several OS, and from CentOS installed on external disk running out of ESXi). It is clearly the bottleneck with several VMs running databases and "heavy" apps.

After reading several topics on this forum, I'm close to move to a P440 controller, but:

- Most topics are from users having SSDs, in this case gain is obvious. I'm having HDDs.

- When I bought the server, my reseller told that I didn't really need a P440, B140i would be enough.

I'm then confused on the gain I could expect with a P440 controller.

Some figures from VMs:

- W rate on large file is about 20-30MB/s when stabilized

- W rate on small files is below 1MB/s

- R rate on large file is about 100 MB/s when stabilized

- R rate on small files is below 10MB/s

Would you recommend to move to P440 controller without hesitation? Or should I consider that gain will not be significant? Didn't manage to find relevant figures.

Next solution would be P440+SSD, but cost is not the same.....

Thanks for your help,

Jérôme

[Robertomcat]

Hello, good morning.
I have an ML110 G9 with a P440 4GB RAID controller, and the difference between the integrated controller and the hardware, is like heaven to earth. I strongly recommend that you buy the P440 controller, if it is the controller that is compatible with your server. You will notice a lot of difference, but a lot.

[Emraansy · Accepted solution]

Hello ,

B140i controller is a  chipset SATA controllers that offer software RAID functionality when using a proprietary driver.  The driver is only available for specific OS releases, also this controller doesnt have a dedicated memory for read caching.

Where as the P440 is a performance controller which does have a dedicated memory options 4GB and 2GB FBWC.

I woud recommended P440 over B140i for better performance.

Please find the quickspecs below.

P440

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04346277

B140i Refer page 7 for cache information

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04441385

[jau1]

Hello,

Yes I knew about cache topic and main technical differences between B140i and P440, was just hard to figure out what performances gap I could expect.

I'll get the P440, and will try to post some figures on this topic, if it can help someone.

Thanks for your help,

Jérôme