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mapd07
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LSI SAS 9211-8i Performance issue. (2MB/s)

Hello,

I got the LSI SAS 9211-8i adapter to set up a ESXi 4.1 Server to host a set of virtual machines.

I attached 8 Western Digital 6Gb/s harddrives to the adapter and set them to RAID 10.

All was OK during the install and initial setup, but when it came time to transfer any virtual machines into that

particular ESX server, the best data transfer rate was somewhere between 2-3MB/s.

I have already upgraded the BIOS and firmware in the adapter, but still no luck getting ti to transfer any faster.

Only time I was able to get some improved data transfer speeds was when I removed the RAID and had all 8 drives individually,

but even then the performance was not that great. (4-5MB/s).

NOTE: If I connect a single harddrive to the motherboard and install the ESXi 4.1 onto the drive, data transfer speed are just fine.

Specs:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E

CPU: Core i7 950

RAM: 24GB DDR3

harddrive: Western Digital WD5002AALX

NIC: Intel PRO/1000MT

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would really appreciate if anybody has any ideas or suggestions.

Regards,

Mikey

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DSTAVERT
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Yes it is built for a price. There isn't anything wrong with it. LSI just removed features (cache and the ability to add it ) to make it sell for a price conscious buyer.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator

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idle-jam
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you will need battery cache inorder to have good performance.

J1mbo
Virtuoso
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Doesn't look like good news with this controller - appears it doesn't have any cache at all.  As stated BBWC is needed for ESXi.

It may be worth considering Dell's Perc 6i instead.

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mapd07
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How or what configuration this card can be used at all? Is the cache rquired for any RAID configuration?

Regards,

Mikey

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DSTAVERT
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When this card is used with a standalone OS like windows or linux it doesn't need to share access to the disks. With ESXi and Virtual Guests they must share access. Without write caching (enabled when a battery backed cache module is present) performance will suffer greatly as you have discovered. Each disk write must be completed and acknowledged before the controller can service the next VM. With write caching the controller can temporarily store writes (and reads) in the cache fro background writing and can quickly service the next VM.

There is no way to improve performance without an onboard battery backed cache .

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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mapd07
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Would this card be OK for a Web-server that would be running Windows 2008 R2 for example? 

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DSTAVERT
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If it was a standalone server it would be adequate but it wouldn't be a top performer under heavy load.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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mapd07
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For what senario would somebody use this card? Is just lower end card to keep the cost low?

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DSTAVERT
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Yes it is built for a price. There isn't anything wrong with it. LSI just removed features (cache and the ability to add it ) to make it sell for a price conscious buyer.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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