RAID 0 Tweaking

BobBob
edited November 2003 in Hardware
I have finished setting up RAID 0 and really didn't like the outcome as far as what HDTack pattern was showing. Very erratic, but Mb/s 55.9, so I went looking for answers.

1 thread mentioned keeping the controller on it's own IRQ. My IRQ 23 has 3 controllers on it. How do I fix this??

Also, 1 thread mentioned setting the stripe size and cluster size. I belive I understand how to set the stripe size (during initial setup) in which I remember as being 64K. I am at a loss as to how to set cluster size. The way I read the info. you do this when you format the hard drive. I use Windows XP Pro and don't remember see a way to do this during setup.

I download the ATTO bench mark and received "header is corrupt" message. Any know where I can find this program? Their web site nolonger sells it.

HDTack is no long being supported also.

Thanks

Tried to send .bmp of HDTack but guess I don't know how. :confused2

Comments

  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Here is the ATTO tools utility. The only thing you will be using is the benmark tool. You will need to make sure you run it with the floolowing settings as well as making sure you have all programs closed and quit anything running in the background, especially F@H.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    You set the stripe in the RAID BIOS or through a utility software that may or may not have come with your controller. The cluster is the allocation size when you format a drive. I recomend setting up a 5GB partition for testing and DO NOT do a "quick format".
  • BobBob
    edited November 2003
    Many thanks for ATTO. Just as I had suspected Writes are way to slow. I'll try to insert ATTO.jpg.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    That is a case of PCI latency needong to be adjusted. Look in this thread for what you need. http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=33793#post33793
  • BobBob
    edited November 2003
    mtgoat, thanks again for the info. on Powerstrip on the other thread. I had read about it last night but this is a new field for me and wasn't real sure if it was what I needed to do next. Thanks for you patience. Here is what I have done so far:

    Changed video card latency from
    248 to 80
    Changed Network device from
    0 to 32
    Changed Creative Labs Fire Wire from ---64 to 8 (not used)
    Left Audigy sound card at ---64

    There are 20 items that are on the list and 14 of them have the latency set a (0)???

    As seen in the pic., nothing changed much.

    Bob

    PS - My first home built and this has been an experience. I have learned a great deal.

    Guess I got so carried away at what was at hand that I forgot to mention what the system board is and etc. Might help in diagnosing the problem.

    ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe
    Pent 4 - 3GHz
    1 Gig of ram
    Audigy 2 zs
    Radeon pro 9800
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    I would only change the latency of the RAID controller. Most often you need to up it quite a bit. What is your controller and is it onboard?
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    but no mention of HD's :D If SATA, he's likely using the ICH5R onboard Intel southbridge RAID. If IDE, likely the onboard Promise IDE/SATA controller. Looking at his benches, a rough guess says IDE on the Promise.
  • BobBob
    edited November 2003
    Opps...(2) Maxtor 60 gig sata's. :banghead: And a :thumbup to keto, yes an ICH5R controller is correct!!
  • BobBob
    edited November 2003
    It looks like we have reached the limit of the Latency tuner. Read and Writes are a lot more even but writes are about 50% less for some reason. I reset the raid controller setting from 96 to 128 and no change so I up'ed it to 152. Nice pattern, just slow on Writes.

    Unless you have some other ideas, which I hope, it looks like a reformat and change the stripe and cluster size as "primesuspect " mention in the previous thread.

    Time to give it up for tonight - 12:16am. Today is another day.

    Have a good one!!!
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    no expert but maybe writes slow due to large stripe size of 64? In any case, next stripe = 16 try methinks sir.

    Not exactly a fair comparison, as these are 2 Raptors in RAID 0 but it's the same mobo/SATA controller. 16 stripe/4 (default) cluster and 16 stripe/16 cluster. By far not finished experimenting and have done no latency changes but for what they're worth, here they are (I hope this isn't too wide):

    **edit** no idea if F@H was running when these were taken (as Tex pointed out in my other post about IDE cluster size, it was) so I'll re-run at least the 16/16 tomorrow.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Bob,
    Sorry for putting the cart before the horse! Go ahead and reset the latencies you adjusted to default and try a 16 stripe/ 16 cluster as Keto suggested. I was just too tired and busy yesterday to do much good.

    Keto,
    Good job! :thumbsup:
  • BobBob
    edited November 2003
    O.K. no problem. But first, I have gone back and read over several of the other threads again and still have a couple of questions. Don't want to go off line without all my ducks in a row.

    First, I have (3) controller vying for the same IRQ (23): USB Host Controller, Promise FastTrak Controller & OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller. Is their a way I can force the Promise onto it's own IRQ on start up.

    Second, I know now how to change the stripe setting in FastTrack on initial RAID setup. No problem here.

    Third, But I am not sure how to set the cluster size at (Full) {read this as needed to be done on another thread} format in Windows XP Pro. I remember seeing the option of quick and (Full) format but not an option in setting cluster size. I did read that Partition Magic was needed, or is this only needed if not starting all over?

    O.K., I just thought of another question...I normally (with 1 HD) set my partitions as follows: C: for System, D: for Swap File and Downloads, E; for Utilities, and F: for Programs. Don't know if this is good but made sense to me. Would It be a good idea on RAID 0 because of how large of disk space I have (2 x 60) or not and is it possible?

    And you thought yesterday was a rough day!!!

    Later

    Bob

    Just found this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2Fdirectory%2Fworldwide%2Fen-gb%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fscid%3Dkb%3Ben-gb%3B314878%26ln%3Den-gb

    O.K, If Windows XP sets the cluster size to 4,096KB's by (Default), does this mean that ATTO is writing 32mb (32768KB) to a 4mb (4096KB) cluster it has to move to 8 clusters to complete the job?
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Every single one of those question except one flew over my head or smacked me in the forehead trying. Partition Magic is a program that can change cluster sizes, yes. Actually, I made a separate 2G partition for swap file, 8G for OS, split the rest 2 ways for programs and storage. Also have a 40G WD on IDE split 2 ways for storage and assorted stuff.

    As promised, a new screenie of ATTO, C (OS) drive @ 16/16 - why do I have a huge change from the same drive @16/16 above?:
  • BobBob
    edited November 2003
    Hi again...keto

    Looks like we are both in the same boat. Over night I have set this thing up 4 times and am still getting the same patten as above. Fast read and slow writes. Just opposite of yours. My last set up is 16/16 and is the worse one of the bunch. My best was 16 cluster and 32 stripes, still with slow writes.

    What board and hard drives are you using? Mine is mentioned above. If we have simular equipment maybe we can compare notes and figure this out.

    At this time I don't have a clue. Maybe "mtgoat" will be back on line and give us some more thoughts on this.

    Just noticed your graph, you might try running the test at 32mb.

    Bob
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