HP ProLiant ML150 Gen9 with HBA H240 = slow local datastore ?

[sonnabend]

Hi,

a few days ago a received a new ProLinat ML150 G9 server. This server comes with the H240 Raid Controller. The onboard B140i controller is disabled.

After installation with the HP custom image 5.5 u2 i got a poor performance on the local datastore. The locial volume = datastore1 is a RAID1 Array with 2 * 1 TB 2,5" disks (7200rpm, 6G SATA, HotPlug).

After reading a lot of postings on different HP server types, i downgraded the HBA driver to 'scsi-hpvsa-5.5.0-88OEM.550.0.0.1331820.x86_64.vib' . The performance increased, but is still bad.

The write speed by small blocks is very bad. I could not belive that this is the maximum speed of this new server. Has anyone a similar system running on a better performance?

The left picture is the poor local datastore performance, the right picture is the same server, same VM with datastore on a QNAP with NFS connection. :smileyconfused:

I made the performance checks with only one Windows7-64 Bit VM and ATTO Disk Benchmark 32_247. Nothing else running on this server.

Can somebody help me to find the issue?

Greetings Joachim

[vervoortjurgen]

hi joachim

does your raid controller has battery? if not install battery on your raid controller it will improve the write cache and lil of the read cache too

i seen alot of new server slow performance because it doesnt have battery installed

[sonnabend]

No there is no battery and no battery conector on this board.

I am wondering that HP sells this externa controller for better performance. I checked the onboard B140i and the performance is nearly the same.

I think i have to search a new controller with BBWC., 😞

[vervoortjurgen]

i think so

looks like a good hba controller for tape devices

but i cant find any memory cache and battery that would give better performance for raid builds

so yes i think you should look for other controller

unless you going for vsan then i think you get better performance as a passthough controller

[cykVM]

Besides that I wonder if the H240 HBA is making use of the hpvsa driver at all. I think the hpvsa is only used by/for the B140i onboard controller.

[sonnabend]

ok, i check if the server will work with the standard iso. Maybe that solves the problem.

[cykVM]

As per HP the H240 uses the hpsa driver and there was a new version (5.5.0.106-1) released 2 days ago, see http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=7553524&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4166

[sonnabend]

cykVM thank you for this information.

I installed now the new driver version. But no significant speed changes. :smileycry:

Tomorrow i borrow a P212 raid controller with 256M cache and battery. If this will speed up the server i exchange the H240 controller.

[sonnabend]

I could not get the P212 working in the ML150 Gen9 server, i tried severel times to boot, but no luck. This controller works fine in a ML110 G7 server.

The UEFI BIOS from the ML150 server did not see the P212. When i switch to legacy mode, the controller and the logical volume is seen but crashes the BIOS. Then the server reboot in UEFI mode :smileyshocked:

I will now look for an other real Array Controller for this server. I keep you informed.

[Ninosx]

hey sonnabendsonnabend, i have exect same problem with same server. if u find solutions pleace tell.

thx...

[sonnabend]

hello Ninosx,

there is no solution with the builtin controller. This hba 240 has no write cache, and is more a software raid controller.

I changed to a smart arry controller p440 with 2 GB FWBC cache modul. Now the speed is fine.