Very Slow HP Proliant cciss RAID5 speed

[rubylaser]

I've been trying to figure out why I have been seeing so many io delays on my Proxmox Host (HP DL360-G5, Xeon(R) CPU E5335 w/6GB RAM and (4) 10,000RPM SAS disks). This is not a heavily utilized machine (load average: 0.15, 0.54, 0.68), but I'd like it to perform better if I need if for a bigger workload.

Here's what I'm running...

proxmox1:~# pveversion -v
pve-manager: 1.6-5 (pve-manager/1.6/5261)
running kernel: 2.6.32-4-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 1.6-24
pve-kernel-2.6.32-4-pve: 2.6.32-24
qemu-server: 1.1-22
pve-firmware: 1.0-9
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-14
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.24-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-8
vzprocps: 2.0.11-1dso2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 0.12.5-2
ksm-control-daemon: 1.0-4

Here's the output of pveperf...

proxmox1:~# pveperf 
CPU BOGOMIPS:      16001.36
REGEX/SECOND:      673117
HD SIZE:           50.45 GB (/dev/mapper/pve-root)
BUFFERED READS:    28.73 MB/sec
AVERAGE SEEK TIME: 12.08 ms
FSYNCS/SECOND:     3.08
DNS EXT:           111.54 ms
DNS INT:           9.27 ms (clarkcc.com)

I almost always have io delays ranging from 2% - 50%+. I've read about the kernels greater than 2.6.29 being slow with this raid controller bugzilla, and I've adjusted my read_ahead_kb to 64, so that the output of hdparm shows this...

proxmox1:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/cciss/c0d0

/dev/cciss/c0d0:
 Timing cached reads:   5196 MB in  2.00 seconds = 2599.62 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  260 MB in  3.02 seconds =  86.04 MB/sec

This was about 13MB/sec with the default kernel options, so it's better, but these still seem like terrible read speeds for a 4 disk RAID5 array imo. Has anyone run into this and found a better workaround or a fix for this issue?

Thanks.

 

[rubylaser]

Here's the output of the HP Array Utility...

proxmox1:~# hpacucli ctrl all show config detail

Smart Array P400i in Slot 0
   Bus Interface: PCI
   Slot: 0
   Serial Number: PH6CMV1718     
   Cache Serial Number: PA82C0D9SU07KQ
   RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Disabled
   Controller Status: OK
   Chassis Slot: 
   Hardware Revision: Rev B
   Firmware Version: 1.18
   Rebuild Priority: Low
   Expand Priority: Low
   Surface Scan Delay: 15 sec
   Cache Board Present: True
   Cache Status: OK
   Accelerator Ratio: 100% Read / 0% Write
   Total Cache Size: 256 MB
   Battery Pack Count: 0
   SATA NCQ Supported: False

   Array: A
      Interface Type: SAS
      Unused Space: 0 MB
      Status: OK

      Logical Drive: 1
         Size: 205.0 GB
         Fault Tolerance: RAID 5
         Heads: 255
         Sectors Per Track: 32
         Cylinders: 52687
         Stripe Size: 64 KB
         Status: OK
         Array Accelerator: Enabled
         Unique Identifier: 600508B1001037313820202020200001
         Disk Name: /dev/cciss/c0d0
         Mount Points: /boot 512 MB

      physicaldrive 1:1
         Port: 1I
         Box: 1
         Bay: 1
         Status: OK
         Drive Type: Data Drive
         Interface Type: SAS
         Size: 72 GB
         Rotational Speed: 10000
         Firmware Revision: HPD5
         Serial Number: 3NP0BSJJ00009730W77S
         Model: HP      DG072ABAB3      
      physicaldrive 1:2
         Port: 1I
         Box: 1
         Bay: 2
         Status: OK
         Drive Type: Data Drive
         Interface Type: SAS
         Size: 72 GB
         Rotational Speed: 10000
         Firmware Revision: HPD7
         Serial Number: 3NP1TLVL000098110PHG
         Model: HP      DG072ABAB3      
      physicaldrive 1:3
         Port: 1I
         Box: 1
         Bay: 3
         Status: OK
         Drive Type: Data Drive
         Interface Type: SAS
         Size: 72 GB
         Rotational Speed: 10000
         Firmware Revision: HPD5
         Serial Number: 3NP0V5Y800009730SKPC
         Model: HP      DG072ABAB3      
      physicaldrive 1:4
         Port: 1I
         Box: 1
         Bay: 4
         Status: OK
         Drive Type: Data Drive
         Interface Type: SAS
         Size: 72 GB
         Rotational Speed: 10000
         Firmware Revision: HPD5
         Serial Number: 3NP10TTW00009731H5ER
         Model: HP      DG072ABAB3

 

[tom]

you need to add the a BBU unit and then the write cache (which is essential) will be enabled.

due to "Battery Pack Count: 0" I assume your system has nothing like this.