Re: sata promise and software raid5...

From: Willy Tarreau
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 23:26:14 EST


Hi,

I think I had the same problem on a PIIX SATA with RAID1. Basically, I noticed
that each disk could be accessed one at a time, and that it was totally
impossible to access the second one while the first one was reading. A simple
"cat /dev/sda >/dev/null" prevented anyone from logging into the box or doing
anything which required disk I/O.

So if you have the same problem, I can fairly understand your low numbers.
Could you try something like :

# cat /dev/sda >/dev/null &
# hdparm -t /dev/sdb

If hdparm doesn't start before the 'cat' ends, you do have the same problem.
Well, I don't know where it comes from, and unfortunately I don't have the
machine anymore to try fixes.

Regards,
Willy

On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 03:46:57AM +0400, Andrey Nekrasov wrote:
> Hello,
>
> controller - Promise SATA 150 TX4, linux 2.6.7-rc1-bk1, HDD Maxtor
> 250Gb (x4)
>
> Why so slowly reads (and writes) with software raid5?
>
> gnome:~ # hdparm -t /dev/sda2
>
> /dev/sda2:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 148 MB in 3.01 seconds = 49.16 MB/sec
> gnome:~ # hdparm -t /dev/sdb2
>
> /dev/sdb2:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 148 MB in 3.02 seconds = 49.01 MB/sec
> gnome:~ # hdparm -t /dev/sdc2
>
> /dev/sdc2:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 148 MB in 3.03 seconds = 48.90 MB/sec
> gnome:~ # hdparm -t /dev/sdd2
>
> /dev/sdd2:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 144 MB in 3.00 seconds = 47.96 MB/sec
> gnome:~ #
> gnome:~ #
> gnome:~ # hdparm -t /dev/md0
>
> /dev/md0:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.12 seconds = 20.52 MB/sec
> gnome:~ #
>
>
> gnome:~ # cat /etc/raidtab
> raiddev /dev/md0
> raid-level 5
> nr-raid-disks 4
> nr-spare-disks 0
> persistent-superblock 1
> parity-algorithm left-symmetric
> chunk-size 1024
>
> device /dev/sda2
> raid-disk 0
>
> device /dev/sdb2
> raid-disk 1
>
> device /dev/sdc2
> raid-disk 2
>
> device /dev/sdd2
> raid-disk 3
>
>
> bye
> --
>
>
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