Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B0526650283 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 08:10:28 -0400 (AST) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 74445-03-2 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 08:10:22 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from mx.inode.at (mx05.lb01.inode.at [62.99.145.5]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 66A82650267 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 08:10:21 -0400 (AST) Received: from [85.124.56.44] (port=14135 helo=[10.192.17.33]) by smartmx-05.inode.at with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1LA1Ps-0004Pt-MD; Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:10:16 +0100 Message-ID: <493E6023.3030800@sime.com> Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:10:11 +0100 From: Mario Weilguni User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.18 (X11/20081125) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Scott Marlowe CC: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Experience with HP Smart Array P400 and SATA drives? References: <4934FE60.30702@sime.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=none X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200812/63 X-Sequence-Number: 32099 Scott Marlowe schrieb: > On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 2:22 AM, Mario Weilguni wrote: > >> Has anyone benchmarked this controller (PCIe/4x, 512 MB BBC)? We try to use >> it with 8x SATA 1TB drives in RAID-5 mode under Linux, and measure strange >> values. An individual drive is capable of delivering 91 MB/sec sequential >> read performance, and we get values ~102MB/sec out of a 8-drive RAID5, seems >> to be ridiculous slow. Write performance seems to be much better, ~300 MB >> /sec - seems ok to me. >> >> I guess I must be doing something wrong, I cannot believe that a 500 € >> controller is delivering such poor performance. >> > > A few suggestions... Try to find the latest driver for your card, try > using the card as nothing but a caching controller and run your RAID > on software in linux (or whatever IS you're on). Test a 2 drive > RAID-0 to see what kind of performance increase you get. If you can't > dd a big file off of a RAID-0 at about 2x the rate of a single drive > then something IS wrong with it. Try RAID 10. Try RAID-1 sets on the > controller and RAID 0 over that in software. > > I've already tried Softraid with individual drives, performs much better. However, it's no option to use softraid, so I'm stuck. The card has the latest firmware installed, and there are no drivers needed, they're already included in the linux kernel. I still think we must be doing something wrong here, I googled the controller and Linux, and did not find anything indicating a problem. The HP SmartArray series is quite common, so a lot of users would have the same problem. Thanks!