Hi,
WARNING: Enabling WC without BBU will cause data corruption when system is shutoff incorrectly.
I have found quite a few posting regarding performance issues with ESXi and LSI IR. Probably due to the write caching being disabled by default on these controllers.
You can change this with LSIUtil (http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/AssetDocument/support/downloads/hbas/fibre_channel/hardware_drivers/LSIUtil%20Kit_1.60.zip), but by default this does not work on ESXi because it's slightly different:
/tmp # ./lsiutil
LSI Logic MPT Configuration Utility, Version 1.60, July 11, 2008
sh: /sbin/modprobe: not found
sh: /bin/mknod: not found
Couldn't open /dev/mptctl or /dev/mpt2ctl!
0 MPT Ports found
/tmp #
I made the following change to the source of LSIUtil and then it works on my ESXi 4.0:
--- lsiutil/mpt2sas_ctl.h 2008-04-17 20:30:40.000000000 +0200
+++ lsiutil.fix/mpt2sas_ctl.h 2009-07-05 22:58:58.000000000 +0200
@@ -56,8 +56,8 @@
/**
*/
-#define MPT2SAS_MINOR MPT_MINOR+1
-#define MPT2SAS_DEV_NAME "mpt2ctl"
#define MPT2SAS_MINOR MPT_MINOR2
+#define MPT2SAS_DEV_NAME "mptctl_sas"
#define MPT2_MAGIC_NUMBER 'm'
#define MPT2_IOCTL_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT (10) /* in seconds */
-
/tmp # ./lsiutil.new
LSI Logic MPT Configuration Utility, Version 1.60, July 11, 2008
sh: /sbin/modprobe: not found
sh: /bin/mknod: not found
1 MPT Port found
Port Name Chip Vendor/Type/Rev MPT Rev Firmware Rev IOC
1. /proc/mpt/ioc0 LSI Logic SAS1068E B3 105 011c0200 0
Select a device: 1
1. Identify firmware, BIOS, and/or FCode
2. Download firmware (update the FLASH)
4. Download/erase BIOS and/or FCode (update the FLASH)
8. Scan for devices
10. Change IOC settings (interrupt coalescing)
13. Change SAS IO Unit settings
16. Display attached devices
20. Diagnostics
21. RAID actions
22. Reset bus
23. Reset target
42. Display operating system names for devices
45. Concatenate SAS firmware and NVDATA files
59. Dump PCI config space
60. Show non-default settings
61. Restore default settings
66. Show SAS discovery errors
69. Show board manufacturing information
97. Reset SAS link, HARD RESET
98. Reset SAS link
99. Reset port
e Enable expert mode in menus
p Enable paged mode
w Enable logging
Main menu, select an option: 21
1. Show volumes
2. Show physical disks
3. Get volume state
4. Wait for volume resync to complete
23. Replace physical disk
26. Disable drive firmware update mode
27. Enable drive firmware update mode
30. Create volume
31. Delete volume
32. Change volume settings
33. Change volume name
50. Create hot spare
51. Delete hot spare
99. Reset port
e Enable expert mode in menus
p Enable paged mode
w Enable logging
RAID actions menu, select an option: 32
Volume 0 is Bus 0 Target 0, Type IM (Integrated Mirroring)
Volume 0 Settings: write caching disabled, auto configure
Volume 0 draws from Hot Spare Pools: 0
Enable write caching: yes
Offline on SMART data:
Auto configuration:
Priority resync:
Hot Spare Pools (bitmask of pool numbers):
RAID ACTION returned IOCLogInfo = 00010005
RAID actions menu, select an option: 0
Main menu, select an option: 0
-
I was doing a slow SCP while enabling WC and you can see my improvement in the attached screenshot.
Let me know if it works for you.
