Smartarray 642 performance

[lardum]

I'm experiencing very slow disk writes. I've checked the performance monitor and it shows a very high avg disk queue. Im currently using a 642 controller. What do you guys think, should i buy the write cache upgrade or go for a new controller?

 

[itsp1965]

lardum, have you tried installing the latest firmware for the controller and the disks? I am not familiar with the 642 but maybe there are some issues. Have you also checked the usual-- excessive paging, type of RAID config etc.

 

[anawrocki]

Based on the limited info on overall server config, it is hard to say. The 642 with upgrade performs quite well for me.

The write cache will definatly not hurt, (Espicaily if transaction logs are being written through this device) and worst case, you could keep this controller and dedicate to OS, Trans Logs, and paging, and get a different controller for data.