Re: Performance issues with Areca 1680 SAS Controllers

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 08:18:44PM +0800, Nick Cheng wrote:
> It could improve the performance with F/W v1.47.
> 

Ok. Thanks!

-- Pasi

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pasi Kärkkäinen [mailto:pasik@xxxxxx] 
> Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 8:16 PM
> To: Nick Cheng
> Cc: 'Andrew Morton'; 'Michael Fuckner'; linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> linux-scsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Performance issues with Areca 1680 SAS Controllers
> 
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 12:56:04PM +0300, Pasi Kärkkäinen wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 09:54:27AM +0800, Nick Cheng wrote:
> > > Hi Gentlemen,
> > > We have worked it out with new firmware and driver.
> > > You can download the latest F/W from
> > > ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/RaidCards/BIOS_Firmware/ARC1680/ and use the
> attached
> > > driver.
> > > Please have a try.
> > > Any comments are welcome.
> > 
> > Thanks! I'll give it a try today and report back.
> > 
> 
> v1.47 firmware seems to fix this problem! The system behaves _much_ better
> now even when Areca is busy flushing it's cache! 
> 
> I didn't update the driver, only Areca firmware.
> 
> Is there something imported fixed in the latest driver? I'm using the
> default driver included in RHEL/CentOS 5.3.
> 
> # modinfo arcmsr.ko
> filename:       arcmsr.ko
> version:        Driver Version 1.20.00.15.RH1 2008/02/27
> 
> -- Pasi
> 
> > 
> > > Thank you,
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Pasi Kärkkäinen [mailto:pasik@xxxxxx] 
> > > Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:09 PM
> > > To: Nick Cheng
> > > Cc: 'Andrew Morton'; 'Michael Fuckner'; linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> > > linux-scsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Erich Chen'
> > > Subject: Re: Performance issues with Areca 1680 SAS Controllers
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 03:39:40PM +0800, Nick Cheng wrote:
> > > > Hi Michael,
> > > > I will get around handling your issue.
> > > > Thanks for your kindly patience,
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > Was this issue resolved? I'm seeing similar behaviour.. I think it's
> related
> > > to flushing the controller cache?
> > > 
> > > Waiting a while (after the disk leds stop blinking) performance is back
> to
> > > normal.. 
> > > 
> > > -- Pasi
> > > 
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Andrew Morton [mailto:akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> > > > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:18 AM
> > > > To: Michael Fuckner
> > > > Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; linux-scsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Nick
> Cheng;
> > > > Erich Chen
> > > > Subject: Re: Performance issues with Areca 1680 SAS Controllers
> > > > 
> > > > (cc's added)
> > > > 
> > > > On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:16:56 +0100
> > > > Michael Fuckner <michael@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > > 
> > > > > I am using an Areca 1680-SAS-Controller with 16 SAS-HDD (Seagate 1TB
> > > > > ST31000640SS). I set up a Raid6 with all 16 disks and formatted it
> with
> > > > > XFS. The Controller has 512MB RAM and a BBU. The OS is installed to
> > > > > another disk attached to the onboard AHCI controller.
> > > > > 
> > > > > After doing some IO, the areca raidset is slower compared to the
> rate 
> > > > > directly
> > > > > after boot.
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > [root@storage ~]# dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/null bs=1M count=50k
> > > > iflag=direct
> > > > > 51200+0 records in
> > > > > 51200+0 records out
> > > > > 53687091200 bytes (54 GB) copied, 59.6494 seconds, 900 MB/s
> > > > > [root@storage ~]# mount /dev/sdb1 /data
> > > > > [root@storage ~]# cd /data/
> > > > > [root@storage data]# ./iozone -i 0 -i 1 -s 32g -r 16m -S 6144 -t 8
> -+r
> > > > > -o  >raid6_sync_t8.log
> > > > > [root@storage data]# cd
> > > > > [root@storage ~]# umount /data/
> > > > > [root@storage ~]# dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/null bs=1M count=50k
> > > > iflag=direct
> > > > > 51200+0 records in
> > > > > 51200+0 records out
> > > > > 53687091200 bytes (54 GB) copied, 76.4036 seconds, 703 MB/s
> > > > > 
> > > > > I tested different Versions of Linux (Centos 5.2, OpenSUSE 11,
> Debian
> > > > > Lenny) and Vanilla kernels 2.6.22-2.6.27, all show this behaviour.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Idea why the device slows down after IO- or better: how to keep the
> high
> > > > > rate? Is this reproducible foer Areca SATA Controllers (Type 11XX
> and
> > > > 12XX)
> > > > > 
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > >    Michael!
> > > > 
> > > > --
> > > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe
> linux-kernel" in
> > > > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > > > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/