Poor RAID10 performance on ESXi 5.1

[amaurib12]

Hello

I have a ESXi 5.1 host using an Adaptec 5405 card, first of all , status/healt of the storage is not displayed on vSphere Client.

Copying files withig the datastorage takes too long.

ESXi Host its a Xeon Sandy Bridge E3-1245 V2 with 32GB Ram
Adaptec 5405

4x 500GB SATA Drives

On one of the guest OS which is configured with 4gb ram  i have run this command to compare with other users results, and this is what im getting.

xxx@xxxx [~/]# 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, 200.147 s, 5.4 MB/s

Copying files on my single drive desktop PC is faster than that.

I have found a adaptec 5405 driver for ESXi 5, but i havent installed it because i dont know if is compatible with 5.1

http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/downloads/vmware/vmware_server/productid=sas-5405&dn=adaptec+raid+5405....

The Adaptec 5405 is listed as compatible on Vmware HCL, also Adaptec site says that drivers will be automaticaly installed by Vmware ESXi.

Do you guys recommend to install that adaptec driver on my ESXi 5.1 host?

I'll really appretiate your comments.

Note: There is no load on the server. There are only 3 vm which are used for Windows development purpose.

thanks.

[amaurib12]

You said it is the SATA, but how is it that software RAID10 on sata's drive perform almost 10x better than hardware raid (Write speed)?

im getting just

9   Mbyte/sec Write Speed

75 Mbyte/sec Read Speed

Using Parkdale tool on a Windows VM

http://thesz.diecru.eu/content/parkdale.php

There is no server load and only one vm is on.

What i still have doubt is that on the card configuration there is no way to modify the cache settings

every time i change it from disable to enable , the changes doesnt stay/save. if i go back to the screeen it says disable.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51017144/raid/disable.jpg

PS: The provider Tech, just confirmed that i indeed have a BBU installed on the Adaptec 5405.

[amaurib12]

I would like to thank everyone's help.

I managed to solve the problem by buying and colocating my own server..  HP ProLiant DL120 G7

• Xeon E3-1270
• 8GB ram
• 3 WD R4 500GB
• HP Smart Array P411/512MB BBWC Controller
• Redundant power Supply

I have installed esxi 5.1 with no problem. and im very happy with the disk performance

RAID5 with 3 drives

(I'll buy a 4th drive on a local store to test  4 drives raid5 & 1+0 performance)

[root@localhost ~]# time sh -c "dd if=/dev/zero of=ddfile bs=8k count=125000 && sync"

125000+0 records in

125000+0 records out

1024000000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 3.16466 s, 324 MB/s

real    0m4.012s

user    0m0.027s

sys     0m1.330s

Compared to the dedicated with 32gb ram

[~]# time sh -c "dd if=/dev/zero of=ddfile bs=8k count=125000 && sync"

125000+0 records in

125000+0 records out

1024000000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 182.576 s, 5.6 MB/s

real    3m22.109s

user    0m0.016s

sys     0m0.958s

My plans are to colocate this new server on a local datacenter (25 minutes from me).

Thanks for the attention you guys have provided.

Update:

4 Drives RAID5

[root@localhost ~]# time sh -c "dd if=/dev/zero of=ddfile bs=8k count=125000 && sync"

125000+0 records in

125000+0 records out

1024000000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 1.85208 s, 553 MB/s

real    0m2.931s

user    0m0.017s

sys     0m1.038s

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

4 Drives RAID10

[root@localhost ~]# time sh -c "dd if=/dev/zero of=ddfile bs=8k count=125000 && sync"

125000+0 records in

125000+0 records out

1024000000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 3.46751 s, 295 MB/s

real    0m3.935s

user    0m0.021s

sys     0m1.192s

I have choosen the RAID5 because of space/performance