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Date:      Wed, 28 May 2008 02:03:26 -0400
From:      Sten Daniel Soersdal <netslists@gmail.com>
To:        Alexander Goncharov <alexander.gsander@gmail.com>
Cc:        freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Strange behavior of SCSI RAID 10 (FreeBSD, LSILogic MegaRAID)
Message-ID:  <483CF5AE.3090105@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <5c29cc10805260541r1f90f516q8ac7d45d2bb15702@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <5c29cc10805260541r1f90f516q8ac7d45d2bb15702@mail.gmail.com>

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Alexander Goncharov wrote:
> Hello world, I have faced with following issue on my dedicated server:
>=20
> 8x Opteron 885, 32gm RAM, 8x36 GM 15k rpm SCSI with RAID 10
>=20
> FreeBSD 7.0-generic, 64 bit version
>=20
>=20
>=20
> IO performance and behavior is very strange:
>=20
> 1)       No other process are running:
>=20
> Memory stat:
>=20
> Mem: 8796K Active, 9372K Inact, 80M Wired, 36K Cache, 12M Buf, 31G Free=

>=20
> Copy 3GB file first time
>=20
> dd if=3D/home/3gb_file of=3D/home/3gb_file2
> 6291456+0 records in
> 6291456+0 records out
> 3221225472 bytes transferred in 138.842926 secs (23200501 bytes/sec)
>=20
> 20MBS is very poor=E2=80=A6
>=20
> Memory stat now:
>=20
> Mem: 8940K Active, 5951M Inact, 287M Wired, 36K Cache, 214M Buf, 25G Fr=
ee
>=20
> 2)       Copy the same file again:
>=20
>  dd if=3D/home/3gb_file of=3D/home/3gb_file2
> 6291456+0 records in
> 6291456+0 records out
> 3221225472 bytes transferred in 30.433515 secs (105844674 bytes/sec)
>=20
> 100MBs =E2=80=93 much better
>=20
> Mem: 9048K Active, 5951M Inact, 287M Wired, 32K Cache, 214M Buf, 25G Fr=
ee
>=20
> Next attempts with this file show 100MBs spped
>=20
> 3)Copy other file first time
> dd if=3D/home/test2 of=3D/home/test2_2
> 6144000+0 records in
> 6144000+0 records out
> 3145728000 bytes transferred in 141.870921 secs (22173170 bytes/sec)
>=20
> 20MBs again
>=20
> Copy the same file again:
>=20
> dd if=3D/home/test2 of=3D/home/test2_2
> 6144000+0 records in
> 6144000+0 records out
> 3145728000 bytes transferred in 29.560267 secs (106417441 bytes/sec)
>=20
> 100MBs =E2=80=93 much better. Memory stat:
>=20
>  Mem: 8964K Active, 12G Inact, 287M Wired, 28K Cache, 214M Buf, 19G Fre=
e
>=20
> Copy first file again:
>=20
> dd if=3D/home/3gb_file of=3D/home/3gb_file2
> 6291456+0 records in
> 6291456+0 records out
> 3221225472 bytes transferred in 34.310753 secs (93883847 bytes/sec)
>=20
> good speed
>=20
> ....
>=20
> So, first copying of any file is extremely slow, second and all next
> attempts  are much better. Please help me with this issue.
>=20
> Dmesg  some info:
>=20
>=20
> ioapic0 <Version 1.1> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
> kbd1 at kbdmux0
> ath_hal: 0.9.20.3 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF54=
13)
> hptrr: HPT RocketRAID controller driver v1.1 (May 22 2008 00:49:14)
> acpi0: <PTLTD   RSDT> on motherboard
> acpi0: [ITHREAD]
> acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
> Timecounter "ACPI-safe" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 850
> acpi_timer0: <24-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x8008-0x800b on acpi0
>=20
>=20
> amr0: <LSILogic MegaRAID 1.53> mem
> 0xdc400000-0xdc40ffff,0xdc100000-0xdc13ffff irq 16 at device 14.0 on pc=
i140
> amr0: Using 64-bit DMA
> amr0: [ITHREAD]
> amr0: delete logical drives supported by controller
> amr0: <LSILogic MegaRAID SCSI 320-2E> Firmware 514L, BIOS H430, 128MB R=
AM

I'm not sure if it's relevant but the LSILogic MegaRAID cards i have are =

not able to do true RAID 1+0. Instead it mirrors and then concatenates=20
which will leave you relatively poor read/write performance (no=20
striping). To do RAID 1+0 on my controllers i had to do mirror in BIOS=20
and then stripe the mirror's using gstripe.

Also once you do RAID you have to pay great attention to block=20
sizes/widths/etc and alignment of such. Improper alignment will ruin any =

performance benefits your RAID levels may provide.

Without Battery backed cache your write performance will be poor.

Also 'dd' defaults to 512 byte blocks (poor testing).

Just my $0.2

--=20
Sten Daniel Soersdal




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