Have they put HW or Software RAID ??
Posted by madrilian, 04-22-2009, 02:05 AM I have recently ordered a new server and I asked for two SAS drives on RAID 1. They told me they would install their best RAID card. Well ... I have the server now .. they have put two Cheeta 15K.5 disks, but I have run the unixbench program and the performance is not very good, in fact, much worse than other servers I have with the same disks with other providers. I look at the RAID .... and it says "MegaSR - LSI Logic" .... and I am starting to think they have fitted a software raid controller rather than a proper hardware card. What do you think? Have they ripped me off?
Posted by mugo, 04-22-2009, 02:18 AM LSI Logic, that would be hardware raid. Raid 0/1 is almost always hardware, most boards come with this ability now-a-days without having to purchase a raid controller. You only need that for larger "10" derivatives and Raid 5 and up. You have a nice controller, and very nice 15K SAS drives. If it's slow, you have either bad hardware or a bad cable.
Posted by madrilian, 04-22-2009, 02:29 AM why does it perform so poorly then ? I have other servers with the cheeta SAS disks and adaptec raid cards and others with fujitsu disks and adaptec card ... and the difference in performance is HUGE Is it normal ?
Posted by mugo, 04-22-2009, 02:35 AM No, it's not normal. I'd first change cables (if they aren't bayed), then try disconnecting one drive at a time. With that brand hardware, you should be getting very decent throughput. Something is up hardware-wise, it sounds like. If they are bayed, it may be the backplain... If this is new, I'd sure make it be THEIR problem...you should be getting good numbers off of a brand new system. Maybe they unloaded some "questionable" hardware on you? Hope not....