Hello,

I have problem with performance on my PDSME+ server.
My server is with 3x500 GB WD Raid Edition with one hot-spare.

When I migrated from RAID-1 to RAID-5 the performance drop dramatically. I have been reading different posts on internet that suggest to force HDD to work on 1.5 GB/s. On supermicro support page there is a similar issue and support staff explain that ICH7R do not support SATA-II.

When I review specification on their web site, they typed that support it.

Does anyone have a similar server with a similar issue?

Thank you very much in advance,
Ivan

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Ivan Dimitrov
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Projetix Ltd.
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// Software Is Like Cathedrals: First we build 'em, then we pray. //

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Registered User

How long ago did you do the migration? The rebuild is going to take quite some time to action, and during this time the IO/ps will be much lower..

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Hello and thank you for your reply,

The migration has been completed last week (almost 16 h) to migrate from 2x 500 GB RAID 1 to 3 x 500 GB RAID 5.

I forgot to type, that I use onboard ICH7R with latest drivers( v.8.2.0.1001).
I did check for bad sectors and do some optimization in Windows.

When I deactivate all write operations (mail server logs, antivirus logs, system event logs) and defragment all portions, the performance rise from avg. 47MB/s read to 146 MB/s read in HDTach.

But the main problem is write operations. I can't do more than 2.5 MB/s random write and SQL Server just almost stop with two OLTP databases.

Is this normal? Till now, all my systems was RAID1 or RAID10, but when I attached two HDD, the only option was to migrate to RAID 5 without re-install Windows.

I also sent email to Supermicro's support and the reply with FAQ answer:

"This problem is because the Intel ICH7R doesn't support the speed of 3
Gb/s SATAII hard drives, so please force your Seagate 7200.10 run in
1.5Gb/s mode to workaround this problem.

The Intel ICH7R SATA controller built on this motherboard does not
support SATA-II. This limitation only applies to the RAID configuration
and not the regular operation of the HDD's."

This is strange for me, because on specification of the MB it support 3.0 GB/s SATA II.

__________________
Ivan Dimitrov
CEO, MCAD.net
Projetix Ltd.
[Web]: (url-removed: need 20 posts)
// Software Is Like Cathedrals: First we build 'em, then we pray. //

__________________
Registered User

The MB supports the 3Gb/s drives, the onboard *raid* doesnt.
You'll need to replace the board with a pdsmi/ln2+ and the zero channel IHC9R or not raid the drives to get the best throughput.

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