7.1-PRERELEASE: arcmsr write performance problem

[Paul MacKenzie]

> Just to confirm we see something similar on the box which runs our stats.
>
> We have updated from 5.4 -> 6.0 -> 6.2 -> 7.0 all have had no effect on
> the lockups which happen when the stats run.
>
> This box is also on an areca controller but it was on an Adaptec and we
> saw pretty much the same thing so I suspect its not related to the
> controller more to the way things are read from and flushed to disk.
>
> When we see this problem any ssh sessions become totally unresponsive.
>
> The stats we are running are a combination of rrdtool updates from a
> mysql DB and rrdtool backed mrtg for network stats.
>
> This is very reproducible here as it "stalls" the box every few mins
> when the stats kick off so if there needs to be more investigation
> we should be able to help.
>
>    Regards
>    Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your message. Do your processes also lock in UFS state?

Well I went and bought a new Areca controller to see if this would fix
it. It is quicker and seems to work much better but unfortunately I am
still seeing the locking.

I moved from a PCI-X Areca controller w/ 1 GB of Cache to a PCI-Express
controller w/ 2 GB of cache.

Main Processor     : 800MHz
CPU ICache Size    : 32KB
CPU DCache Size    : 32KB
CPU SCache Size    : 512KB
System Memory      : 2048MB/533MHz/ECC
Firmware Version   : V1.46 2008-08-06
BOOT ROM Version   : V1.45 2008-08-26
Controller Name    : ARC-1231

As I try to see if there is a hardware connection to this I will let you
know. I guess I am going to have to replace the full chassis
SR2500ALBRPNA and mainboard S5000PAL next.

If no solution is found with hardware replacement then am I out of
options with using Freebsd?

I wonder would there be any need to also try to replace the ram and cpus
given there are no errors?

Thanks,

Paul