Very poor performance from Dell/LSI Logic SAS 3000 series SATA/SAS RAID controller FreeBSD 6.3

[Warren Guy]

Hi,

We have a few recently acquired Dell Poweredge SC440 machines in our office
running FreeBSD 6.3 that are experiencing very poor disk performance. The RAID
controller they are supplied with appears to be an "LSI Logic SAS 3000 Series".
There are two 250GB SATA disks in RAID 1 configuration. 6-7MB/s seems to be the
best I can get out of them. A Linux 2.6 machine with identical hardware and
disk/controller configuration exhibits no such performance impediments.

Any information or pointers are greatly appreciated.

bonnie++ output:

Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
eva.internal   300M   306  99  6722   1  5591   1   533  99 +++++ +++  2359  37
Latency             26715us     157ms    2193ms   25385us     808us    3852us
Version 1.93c       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
eva.internal        -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  4572  11 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  3019   7 +++++ +++ 28367  40
Latency              1277ms      23us      33us    1396ms      92us     317ms
1.93c,1.93c,eva.internal,1,1211281869,300M,,306,99,6722,1,5591,1,533,99,+++++,+++,2359,37,16,,,,,4572,11,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,3019,7,+++++,+++,28367,40,26715us,157ms,2193ms,25385us,808us,3852us,1277ms,23us,33us,1396ms,92us,317ms

and bonnie++ from the Linux 2.6 machine:

Version  1.03       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
webvms         300M 41255  78 114551  26 565402  88 52867  94 +++++ +++ +++++ +++
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  3571  95 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  3543  92 +++++ +++ 10787  82
webvms,300M,41255,78,114551,26,565402,88,52867,94,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,16,3571,95,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,3543,92,+++++,+++,10787,82



uname:
FreeBSD eva.internal 6.3-RELEASE-p1 FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE-p1 #0: Wed Feb 13
02:56:56 UTC 2008     root at i386-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/SMP
 i386

from dmesg:
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            3050  @ 2.13GHz (2128.01-MHz 686-class CPU)
real memory  = 2145894400 (2046 MB)
avail memory = 2090598400 (1993 MB)
...
mpt0: <LSILogic SAS/SATA Adapter> port 0xdc00-0xdcff mem
0xefdec000-0xefdeffff,0xefdf0000-0xefdfffff irq 16 at device 8.0 on pci2
mpt0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
mpt0: MPI Version=1.5.13.0
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16
mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x16 (ACK not required).
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12
mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x12 (ACK not required).
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12
mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x12 (ACK not required).
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16
mpt0: Unhandled Event Notify Frame. Event 0x16 (ACK not required).
...
da0 at mpt0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
da0: <Dell VIRTUAL DISK 1028> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-5 device
da0: 300.000MB/s transfers, Tagged Queueing Enabled
da0: 237464MB (486326272 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 30272C)

pciconf:
mpt0 at pci2:8:0:	class=0x010000 card=0x1f091028 chip=0x00541000 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'LSI Logic (Was: Symbios Logic, NCR)'
    device     = 'SAS 3000 series, 8-port with 1068 -StorPort'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = SCSI

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