Very poor performance from Dell/LSI Logic SAS 3000 series SATA/SAS RAID controller FreeBSD 6.3

[Scott Long]

Add the following to /boot/loader.conf:

hw.mpt.enable_sata_wc=1


Scott


Warren Guy wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We have a few recently acquired Dell Poweredge SC440 machines in our office
> running FreeBSD 6.3 that are experiencing very poor disk performance. The RAID
> controller they are supplied with appears to be an "LSI Logic SAS 3000 Series".
> There are two 250GB SATA disks in RAID 1 configuration. 6-7MB/s seems to be the
> best I can get out of them. A Linux 2.6 machine with identical hardware and
> disk/controller configuration exhibits no such performance impediments.
> 
> Any information or pointers are greatly appreciated.
> 
> bonnie++ output:
> 
> Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
> Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
> Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
> eva.internal   300M   306  99  6722   1  5591   1   533  99 +++++ +++  2359  37
> Latency             26715us     157ms    2193ms   25385us     808us    3852us
> Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
> eva.internal        -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
>               files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
>                  16  4572  11 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  3019   7 +++++ +++ 28367  40
> Latency              1277ms      23us      33us    1396ms      92us     317ms
> 1.93c,1.93c,eva.internal,1,1211281869,300M,,306,99,6722,1,5591,1,533,99,+++++,+++,2359,37,16,,,,,4572,11,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,3019,7,+++++,+++,28367,40,26715us,157ms,2193ms,25385us,808us,3852us,1277ms,23us,33us,1396ms,92us,317ms
> 
> and bonnie++ from the Linux 2.6 machine:
> 
> Version  1.03       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
>                     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
> Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
> webvms         300M 41255  78 114551  26 565402  88 52867  94 +++++ +++ +++++ +++
>                     ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
>                     -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
>               files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
>                  16  3571  95 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  3543  92 +++++ +++ 10787  82
> webvms,300M,41255,78,114551,26,565402,88,52867,94,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,16,3571,95,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,3543,92,+++++,+++,10787,82
> 
> 
> 
> uname:
> FreeBSD eva.internal 6.3-RELEASE-p1 FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE-p1 #0: Wed Feb 13
> 02:56:56 UTC 2008     root at i386-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/SMP
>  i386
> 
> from dmesg:
> CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            3050  @ 2.13GHz (2128.01-MHz 686-class CPU)
> real memory  = 2145894400 (2046 MB)
> avail memory = 2090598400 (1993 MB)
> ...
> mpt0: <LSILogic SAS/SATA Adapter> port 0xdc00-0xdcff mem
> 0xefdec000-0xefdeffff,0xefdf0000-0xefdfffff irq 16 at device 8.0 on pci2
> mpt0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
> mpt0: MPI Version=1.5.13.0
> mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16
> mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x16 (ACK not required).
> mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12
> mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x12 (ACK not required).
> mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12
> mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x12 (ACK not required).
> mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16
> mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x16 (ACK not required).
> ...
> da0 at mpt0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
> da0: <Dell VIRTUAL DISK 1028> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-5 device
> da0: 300.000MB/s transfers, Tagged Queueing Enabled
> da0: 237464MB (486326272 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 30272C)
> 
> pciconf:
> mpt0 at pci2:8:0:	class=0x010000 card=0x1f091028 chip=0x00541000 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
>     vendor     = 'LSI Logic (Was: Symbios Logic, NCR)'
>     device     = 'SAS 3000 series, 8-port with 1068 -StorPort'
>     class      = mass storage
>     subclass   = SCSI
>