From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 27 18:06:31 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BA33F16A404 for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:06:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from richardtector@thekeelecentre.com) Received: from mx0.thekeelecentre.com (mx0.thekeelecentre.com [217.206.238.167]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7AC6513C487 for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:06:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from richardtector@thekeelecentre.com) Received: from localhost (mailfil.mx0.thekeelecentre.com [217.206.238.165]) by mx0.thekeelecentre.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA7A64212; Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:06:30 +0100 (BST) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at mx0.thekeelecentre.com Received: from mx0.thekeelecentre.com ([217.206.238.167]) by localhost (mailfil.mx0.thekeelecentre.com [217.206.238.165]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id bLpOHr6060zt; Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:06:25 +0100 (BST) Received: from [217.206.238.190] (sylvester.tector.org.uk [217.206.238.190]) by mx0.thekeelecentre.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29B454210; Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:06:25 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <46095CA9.7060701@thekeelecentre.com> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:04:25 +0100 From: Richard Tector User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (Windows/20070221) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ivan Voras References: <460959E8.207@thekeelecentre.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Dell SAS5 Performance Issue X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:06:31 -0000 Ivan Voras wrote: > Richard Tector wrote: > >> I'm suffering from very slow write performance on a Dell PowerEdge 860 >> with the SAS5/IR controller (mpt driver) running either 6.2-RELEASE or >> 6.2-STABLE with sources from yesterday. The controller hosts 2 Western >> Digital 320GB SATA disks in a RAID1 configuration. >> Reads approach 65MB/s however writes appear extremely slow, in the >> region of 6-7MB/s with a dd and a blocksize of 1MB all the way down to >> about 300KB/s while extracting a ports snapshot. >> >> It was suggested to me that perhaps write caching has been disabled on >> the controller however no options exist within the BIOS configuration to >> view/adjust *any* caching options. >> > > You looked in the controller's BIOS, not motherboard's, right? Indeed I did. > There should be at least a "write through" vs "write back" switch... Correct, there should be options, but there aren't. The controller BIOS has very few options at all in fact. > No, but can you post the relevant bits for the controller from dmesg? > Sure: mpt0: port 0xec00-0xecff mem 0xfe9fc000-0xfe9fffff,0xfe9e0000-0xfe9effff irq 16 at device 8.0 on pci2 mpt0: [GIANT-LOCKED] mpt0: MPI Version=1.5.12.0 mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16 mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x16 (ACK not required). mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12 mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x12 (ACK not required). mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12 mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x12 (ACK not required). mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16 mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x16 (ACK not required). [...snip...] da0 at mpt0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0 da0: Fixed Direct Access SCSI-5 device da0: 300.000MB/s transfers, Tagged Queueing Enabled da0: 305175MB (624998400 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 38904C) Regards, Richard