zxdavb Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Hi, I have an HP Gen8 running the HP version of ESXi v6.0u1 running off a 32GB sd-card. I have 1x 250GB Samsung 850 EVO (will soon be paired in RAID 1 with a 840 EVO currently used elsewhere) for VMs, and 2x 1GB WD REDs in RAID 1 for storage (maybe xpenology); they are all connected by a P222/512MB controller - nothing is connected to the B120i controller. I have been unimpressed with the disk performance, and before sorting it out, wanted to ask what was the best way of benchmarking disk I/O? My preference would be to run some utility inside a Windows 7 VM, or a Windows 10 VM, but which? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have tried ATTO disk benchmark v3.05 with default settings. read about 500MB/sec, but writes are 50 MB/sec at best (and usually lower than that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotNoTime Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Hmm. That is odd. I don't have that trouble with my P222 under ESXi but I'm using a RAID5 array and my VMs are Linux based. Neither of those should affect it though. How is your VM drive that you're benchmarking configured? Single drive RAID0 of just the SSD? Atto should be fine for benchmarking disk performance. You'll get lower values than if you were running Windows on bare metal but it shouldn't go down to < 50MB/s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxdavb Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 How is your VM drive that you're benchmarking configured? Single drive RAID0 of just the SSD? Yes, single drive RAID0 of just the SSD. Do I need to disable the B120i, or such? AFAIK, I pretty well much used defaults for everything when setting up the arrays, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotNoTime Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Do I need to disable the B120i, or such? AFAIK, I pretty well much used defaults for everything when setting up the arrays, etc...No. You don't need to disable the B120i controller. I've got a SSD attached to mine for vFRC. Can you run the following from the vSphere CLI? esxcli -u AdminUsername -s YourESXiHost hpssacli cmd -q "controller all show config detail"If you're running it on the host itself then you can skip the username and server options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxdavb Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) Can you run the following from the vSphere CLI? In the end I used: /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli controller all show config detail The result is: Smart Array P222 in Slot 1 Bus Interface: PCI Slot: 1 Serial Number: PDSXH0BRH8Q223 Cache Serial Number: PBKUA0BRH7X0FA RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Enabled Controller Status: OK Hardware Revision: B Firmware Version: 6.34 Rebuild Priority: Low Expand Priority: Medium Surface Scan Delay: 15 secs Surface Scan Mode: Idle Parallel Surface Scan Supported: No Queue Depth: Automatic Monitor and Performance Delay: 60 min Elevator Sort: Enabled Degraded Performance Optimization: Disabled Inconsistency Repair Policy: Disabled Wait for Cache Room: Disabled Surface Analysis Inconsistency Notification: Disabled Post Prompt Timeout: 0 secs Cache Board Present: True Cache Status: OK Cache Ratio: 25% Read / 75% Write Drive Write Cache: Disabled Total Cache Size: 512 MB Total Cache Memory Available: 304 MB No-Battery Write Cache: Disabled Cache Backup Power Source: Capacitors Battery/Capacitor Count: 1 Battery/Capacitor Status: OK SATA NCQ Supported: True Spare Activation Mode: Activate on physical drive failure (default) Controller Temperature (C): 88 Cache Module Temperature (C): 36 Capacitor Temperature (C): 22 Number of Ports: 2 (1 Internal / 1 External ) Driver Name: HP HPSA Driver Version: 6.0.0 PCI Address (Domain:Bus:Device.Function): 0000:07:00.0 Host Serial Number: CZ1538035V Sanitize Erase Supported: False Primary Boot Volume: None Secondary Boot Volume: None Port Name: 2I Port ID: 0 Port Connection Number: 0 SAS Address: 5001438034C9BDD0 Port Location: Internal Port Name: 1E Port ID: 1 Port Connection Number: 1 SAS Address: 5001438034C9BDD4 Port Location: External Array: A Interface Type: Solid State SATA Unused Space: 0 MB (0.0%) Used Space: 232.9 GB (100.0%) Status: OK MultiDomain Status: OK Array Type: Data HP SSD Smart Path: enable Logical Drive: 1 Size: 232.9 GB Fault Tolerance: 0 Heads: 255 Sectors Per Track: 32 Cylinders: 59844 Strip Size: 256 KB Full Stripe Size: 256 KB Status: OK MultiDomain Status: OK Caching: Disabled Unique Identifier: 600508B1001CFAE86895CAA31E5EBDE4 Logical Drive Label: 0010C235PDSXH0BRH8Q2230414 Drive Type: Data LD Acceleration Method: HP SSD Smart Path physicaldrive 2I:0:1 Port: 2I Box: 0 Bay: 1 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: Solid State SATA Size: 250 GB Drive exposed to OS: False Native Block Size: 512 Firmware Revision: EMT01B6Q Serial Number: S21NNSAG575652N Model: ATA Samsung SSD 850 SATA NCQ Capable: True SATA NCQ Enabled: True Current Temperature (C): 25 Maximum Temperature (C): 70 SSD Smart Trip Wearout: Not Supported PHY Count: 1 PHY Transfer Rate: 6.0Gbps Drive Authentication Status: Not Applicable Sanitize Erase Supported: False Array: B Interface Type: SATA Unused Space: 0 MB (0.0%) Used Space: 1.8 TB (100.0%) Status: OK MultiDomain Status: OK Array Type: Data HP SSD Smart Path: disable Logical Drive: 2 Size: 931.5 GB Fault Tolerance: 1 Heads: 255 Sectors Per Track: 32 Cylinders: 65535 Strip Size: 256 KB Full Stripe Size: 256 KB Status: OK MultiDomain Status: OK Caching: Enabled Unique Identifier: 600508B1001C59A584F9B9A4398B7A43 Logical Drive Label: 04832AA4PDSXH0BRH8Q223FA77 Mirror Group 1: physicaldrive 2I:0:3 (port 2I:box 0:bay 3, SATA, 1 TB, OK) Mirror Group 2: physicaldrive 2I:0:4 (port 2I:box 0:bay 4, SATA, 1 TB, OK) Drive Type: Data LD Acceleration Method: Controller Cache physicaldrive 2I:0:3 Port: 2I Box: 0 Bay: 3 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SATA Size: 1 TB Drive exposed to OS: False Native Block Size: 4096 Rotational Speed: 5400 Firmware Revision: 82.00A82 Serial Number: WD-WXV1E949AN87 Model: ATA WDC WD10JFCX-68N SATA NCQ Capable: True SATA NCQ Enabled: True Current Temperature (C): 27 Maximum Temperature (C): 41 PHY Count: 1 PHY Transfer Rate: 6.0Gbps Drive Authentication Status: Not Applicable Sanitize Erase Supported: False physicaldrive 2I:0:4 Port: 2I Box: 0 Bay: 4 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SATA Size: 1 TB Drive exposed to OS: False Native Block Size: 4096 Rotational Speed: 5400 Firmware Revision: 82.00A82 Serial Number: WD-WX91E94164RZ Model: ATA WDC WD10JFCX-68N SATA NCQ Capable: True SATA NCQ Enabled: True Current Temperature (C): 27 Maximum Temperature (C): 41 PHY Count: 1 PHY Transfer Rate: 6.0Gbps Drive Authentication Status: Not Applicable Sanitize Erase Supported: False SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model SRCv8x6G) 380 Device Number: 380 Firmware Version: RevB WWID: 5001438034C9BDDF Vendor ID: PMCSIERA Model: SRCv8x6G Edited January 11, 2016 by zxdavb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotor Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) Two things: - Are you using build 88 of the HP driver? If you are using a newer version, you will get terrible performance - Is the P222 Write-Cache enabled for that volume? Could be turned off for some reason. Also, just noticed you have this (seems very high, but I don't have a P222 so can't check): Controller Temperature (C): 88 Edited January 11, 2016 by rotor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotNoTime Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 - Are you using build 88 of the HP driver? If you are using a newer version, you will get terrible performanceThat is the HP DSA driver which is used for the B120i. The P222 uses the HP SA driver which is completely different. - Is the P222 Write-Cache enabled for that volume? Could be turned off for some reason.No write cache shouldn't affect the performance that badly. It is more of an issue with RAID5 but these are mirrored drives. Also, just noticed you have this (seems very high, but I don't have a P222 so can't check): Controller Temperature (C): 88 That is normal for a P222 inside a Gen8 Microserver. The RAID controller chip gets very hot but only has a tiny heatsink with no fan and the Gen8 Microserver doesn't have very good airflow over the card slot. Taking off the case however completely stops the small amount of air flowing over the heatsink and the P222 will start to overheat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxdavb Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) Thanks for everyone's input. I read: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2092190, which gave me a hint... ...and I noticed the following: Smart Array P222 in Slot 1 ... Drive Write Cache: Disabled and Logical Drive: 1 ... Caching: Disabled So I set the first (Drive Write Cache) to Enabled and I got my performance back! I understand that this setting configures the write cache on the drive itself, not the controller. Also, it seems that 'When SSD Smart Path is enabled, I/O for the SSD bypasses the firmware of the controller' and thus doesn't utilize the controller's write cache (which is turned off for this logical drive anyway?). Given that the controller's write cache is backed-up by a capacitor (and the SSD's is not), I may switch Drive Write Cache back to Disabled, and turn off the SSD Smart Path feature, but I will have to do some more reading first! (I think the answer is that SSD Smart Path is good for repetitive high-volume transaction-based IO). Unless anyone has any recommendations in this area? Edited January 11, 2016 by zxdavb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxdavb Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) OK, this page is a good reference: https://kallesplayground.wordpress.com/useful-stuff/hp-smart-array-cli-commands-under-esxi/ After turning SSD Smart Path off (forcing IO through the controller), I tried two combinations: 1) left - as my original configuration, but the the physical SSD's own write cache enabled (as I expected, its appears same with/without Smart Path) 2) right - as left, but with the controller caching IO for that logical drive [root@vm-esxhost:~] /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli controller slot=1 show config detail | grep achi Caching: Disabled Caching: Enabled [root@vm-esxhost:~] /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=1 logicaldrive 1 modify arrayaccelerator=enable [root@vm-esxhost:~] /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli controller slot=1 show config detail | grep achi Caching: Enabled Caching: Enabled Here is the results: Edited January 11, 2016 by zxdavb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxdavb Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 And this is with the controller cache on, but the physical SSD's write cache off via: /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=1 modify dwc=disable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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