Steve Wolfe wrote:

The numbers that you posted from Bonnie++ , if I followed them correctly,
showed max throughputs in the 20 MB/second range. That seems awfully slow
for this sort of setup.

I noticed that, too, but then noticed that the OP seemed to be running
three copies of Bonnie++ in parallel. His command line was:

'bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type -p 3 ; \
bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type-c1 -y & \
bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type-c2 -y & \
bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type-c3 -y &'

I'm no expert, but if he's running three in parallel on the same
software RAID, I'd suspect that the total performance should be taken as
the *sum* of those three---or over 60 MB/sec.

As a comparison, I have two machines with software RAID 5 arrays, one a
2x866 P3 system with 5x120-gig drives, the other an A64 system with 8x300
gig drives, and both of them can read and write to/from their RAID 5 array
at 45+ MB/s, even with the controller cards plugged into a single 32/33 PCI
bus.

As another point of comparison: 5x73GB SCSI drives, software RAID-5,
one U160 SCSI channel, 32-bit/33-MHz bus, dual 1GHz P-III: writes at 36
MB/sec and read reads at 74 MB/sec.

(Actually, the 7506 cards are 66MHz PCI-X, so they don't take full
advantage of the theoretical bandwidth available on the slots,
anyway.)

There is no 66MHz PCI-X.
3Ware 7506 cards are PCI 2.2 compliant 64-bit/66MHz bus master.

"Peter" wrote in message
(Actually, the 7506 cards are 66MHz PCI-X, so they don't take full
advantage of the theoretical bandwidth available on the slots, anyway.)

There is no 66MHz PCI-X.

The PCI-SIG seem to think different. Perhaps you know better then?
And contrary to what you say elsewhere, they say there is no 100MHz
spec. That was added by the industry.

3Ware 7506 cards are PCI 2.2 compliant 64-bit/66MHz bus master.

I wrote earlier:
While everything is still fresh in your mind, make sure you label
the drives so you are absolutely sure which drive is which.

This does concern me. How the heck do I tell them apart, even now?
How di I figure out which drive is sda, which is sdb, which is sdc,
etc., etc.?

As it turns out, it proved straightforward to use either 'smartctl -a
--device=3ware,[0-3] /dev/twe[0-1]' or 3Ware's 3dm2 and tw_cli
(available on the Web site) tools to read the serial numbers of the
drives. So mystery solved.

--
Read my Deep Thoughts @ URL:http://www.ylee.org/blog/ PERTH ---- *
Cpu(s): 6.9% us, 3.2% sy, 2.7% ni, 77.6% id, 8.3% wa, 1.3% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 515800k total, 511768k used, 4032k free, 10648k buffers
Swap: 2101032k total, 240k used, 2100792k free, 263108k cached

Peter wrote:
There is no 66MHz PCI-X.
3Ware 7506 cards are PCI 2.2 compliant 64-bit/66MHz bus master.

What's the difference? I thought 64-bit/66Mhz PCI *was* PCI-X.

--
Read my Deep Thoughts @ URL:http://www.ylee.org/blog/ PERTH ---- *
Cpu(s): 6.9% us, 3.2% sy, 2.7% ni, 77.6% id, 8.3% wa, 1.3% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 515800k total, 511048k used, 4752k free, 11788k buffers
Swap: 2101032k total, 240k used, 2100792k free, 261024k cached

"Al Dykes" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Yeechang Lee wrote:
Dorothy Bradbury wrote:
Watch PSU:
o To the original poster & any multi-GB system, PSU matters
---- not just re s/w failure, but h/w failure
---- very rare, but this IS an area where over-capacity is an idea

PSU concerns are why I went with an Antec 550W supply as opposed to
some 300-400W noname brand. Since my rackmount case does not have room
for a redundant supply, I suspect this is the best I can do. As you
say, PSU problems are relatively rare.

That said, anyone know how I can dynamically measure
the actual wattage used by my system, beyond just
adding up each individual component's wattage?

http://www.ahernstore.com/p4400.html about $30. I've got one.

Thats measuring the power INTO the power supply, not what its supplying
so isnt very useful for checking how close you are getting to the PSU rating.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Thats measuring the power INTO the power supply, not what its supplying
so isnt very useful for checking how close you are getting to the PSU
rating.


Its just a matter of time before all power supplies have some sort of load
monitoring method, just like most all motherboards now have software for
monitoring fan speeds, temperature, voltage from the PS. Has anybody seen a
smart power supply that can indicate load?

--Dan

I noticed that, too, but then noticed that the OP seemed to be running
three copies of Bonnie++ in parallel. His command line was:

'bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type -p 3 ; \
bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type-c1 -y & \
bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type-c2 -y & \
bonnie++ -s 4G -m 3ware-swraid5-type-c3 -y &'

I'm no expert, but if he's running three in parallel on the same
software RAID, I'd suspect that the total performance should be taken as
the *sum* of those three---or over 60 MB/sec.

Good point- I missed that!

steve

"Yeechang Lee" wrote in message
...
Peter wrote:
There is no 66MHz PCI-X.
3Ware 7506 cards are PCI 2.2 compliant 64-bit/66MHz bus master.

What's the difference? I thought 64-bit/66Mhz PCI *was* PCI-X.

Both standards have that combo, but PCI-X is 10-30% faster. PCI-X 1.0 is
66/100/133 Mhz, 32/64 bits.

"dg" writes:
"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Thats measuring the power INTO the power supply, not what its supplying
so isnt very useful for checking how close you are getting to the PSU
rating.

Sure, but it certainly gives an upper limit for the output of the PSU.
So since my PSU never draws more than 180W on my Athlon 64 box, I know
that my 365W power supply is overdimensioned.

Of course one also has to take the load for the different voltages
into consideration, not just the overall rating, and the input wattage
does not help that much there.

PSU efficiency for typical loads seems to be around 70%-75% (give or
take a few percent depending on the quality of the PSU).

Its just a matter of time before all power supplies have some sort of load
monitoring method, just like most all motherboards now have software for
monitoring fan speeds, temperature, voltage from the PS. Has anybody seen a
smart power supply that can indicate load?

That would be a bad move on the part of the PSU manufacturers: It
would cost them money to include this feature, and it would convince
their customers to get smaller (cheaper) PSUs next time.

Followups set to colh, because I read that.

- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html