LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i with ESXi - low disk performace

[Czakoszek]

Hello,

I'm using a free ESXi version and I have problem with a low disk performance. Disk performance varies widely - transfer 10MB - 181MB/s I have a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i without BBU. In my opinion, the problem is in the configuration of raid. How I resolve my problem?

After logging to vSphere I go to the Configuration tab and click Health Status.

What's mean: "UNOCNOFIGURED GOOD"?

I running vm with ubuntu live, mount esxi partition and do a 'dd' tests:

root@ubuntu:/mnt# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync

16384+0 records in

16384+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 11.4505 s, 93.8 MB/s

root@ubuntu:/mnt# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync

16384+0 records in

16384+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 9.40127 s, 114 MB/s

root@ubuntu:/mnt# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync

16384+0 records in

16384+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 22.8363 s, 47.0 MB/s

root@ubuntu:/mnt# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync

16384+0 records in

16384+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 93.559 s, 11.5 MB/s

root@ubuntu:/mnt# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync

16384+0 records in

16384+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 96.757 s, 11.1 MB/s

Also i did the hdparm test:

root@ubuntu:/mnt# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

Timing cached reads:   21080 MB in  2.00 seconds = 10549.20 MB/sec

Timing buffered disk reads: 530 MB in  3.00 seconds = 176.51 MB/sec

root@ubuntu:/mnt# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

Timing cached reads:   20586 MB in  2.00 seconds = 10301.77 MB/sec

Timing buffered disk reads: 532 MB in  3.01 seconds = 176.51 MB/sec

Command: MegaCli -AdpAllInfo -aAll

http://pastebin.com/pPXps30P

Command: MegaCli -PDList -aAll

http://pastebin.com/9ntSkHvM

Command: MegaCli -CfgDsply -aAll

http://pastebin.com/NHV09Xpv

I have a ditional question: How I can get a smart for diferent disk?

Sorry for my english,

Regards,

Łukasz

[JarryG]

"...I have a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i without BBU..."

I think missing BBU might be cause of your problem. I have much older 8888ELP, I have been using it without BBU and suffered from performance too. When I added BBU and enabled write-cache performace skyrocketed. I'd recommend to invest in decent BBU. You can find some cheap 2nd-hand one on ebay...

BTW, what disks are you using? I'd recommend to use enterprise-class (or "raid-edition") drives, i.e. drives which are especially designed to run in raid. They have time-limited error recovery, or can even postpone error recovery and sector-relocation for later time, when drive is not being used...

[Czakoszek]

I'm using 2x ST3000DM001-9YN166. I trying upgrade firmware on controler. The raid works well on other systems but on ESXi I have got a low disk performance. The problem occurs only on ESXi. I don't why... I haven't way to buy batteries for the controller. I leasing a dedicated server.