New SBS 2011 server w/ RST has painfully slow drives

idata · ‎11-11-2012

Hi --

I have a server built on a Supermicro X7DB8 board (Intel 5000P chipset) with two 3-Ghz Xeon processors and 16 GB of RAM. It has two RAID1 sets using two pairs of identical Seagate drives, running under IRST 10.1.0.1008. It is running Windows Small Business Server 2011 SP1. This server is painfully slow. The simplest requests take inordinately long times to resolve. I have looked high and low for the reason for this, and the problem seems to come down to really, REALLY slow drives.

This same server had been running SBS 2003 on 2 GB of RAM and two different RAID1 sets (also Seagates) on an earlier rev of IRST, and the machine hummed along beautifully. When the SBS 2003 was decommissioned, I rebuilt this machine with new RAM and four new, faster hard drives and installed SBS 2011 clean. So far, about the only thing the machine is running is the server base and SBS software set, albeit with all the updates from Microsoft. It currently has only one user in AD and doesn't even have a PC attached to the domain yet. I don't even have an antivirus program running on it. But response times on this machine are dismal.

A Passmark Performance Test on the two RAID volumes gives me consistently low results:

Drive C: (SYSVOL)

Sequential read: 34.4 MB/sec

Sequential write: 41.0 MB/sec

Random seek+RW: 8.6 MB/sec

Drive D: (DATAVOL)

Sequential read: 70.2 MB/sec

Sequential write: 45.4 MB/sec

Random seek+RW: 11.2 MB/sec

The results never vary much from the numbers above. These are from SATA-3 drives.

The IRST System Report follows. As far as I know, version 10.1.0.1008 is the latest version of RST that supports the ESB2 controller. The server has the latest available BIOS. I also installed the latest Intel chipset INF files.

What could be causing this horrible disk response?

Thanks,

CL

System Report

System Information

OS name: Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Standard

OS version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 7601

System name: OBELIX

System manufacturer: Supermicro

System model: X7DB8

Processor: GenuineIntel Intel64 Family 15 Model 6 Stepping 4 3 GHz

BIOS: Phoenix Technologies LTD, 2.1c

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Kit installed: 10.1.0.1008

User interface version: 10.1.0.1008

Language: English (United States)

Intel RAID controller: Intel(R) ESB2 SATA RAID Controller

Number of SATA ports: 6

RAID option ROM version: 5.6.4.1002

Driver version: 10.1.0.1008

ISDI version: 10.1.0.1008

Device Information

Name: Array_0000

Size: 932 GB

Available space: 0 GB

Disk data cache: Disabled

Number of volumes: 2

Volume member: SysVol

Volume member: ScratchVol

Number of disks: 2

Array disk: W2A9FML6

Array disk: W2A8Y3FN

Name: Array_0001

Size: 2,795 GB

Available space: 0 GB

Disk data cache: Enabled

Number of volumes: 1

Volume member: DataVol

Number of disks: 2

Array disk: 9VS09EMW

Array disk: 9VS039L3

Name: SysVol

Status: Normal

Type: RAID 1

Size: 373 GB

Data strip size: 64 KB

Write-back cache: Disabled

System volume: Yes

Initialized: Yes

Verification errors found: 0

Blocks with media errors: 0

Physical sector size: 4096 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Parent array: Array_0000

Number of disks: 2

Array disk: W2A9FML6

Array disk: W2A8Y3FN

Name: ScratchVol

Status: Normal

Type: RAID 0

Size: 186 GB

Data strip size: 128 KB

Write-back cache: Disabled

System volume: No

Initialized: Yes

Verification errors found: 0

Blocks with media errors: 0

Physical sector size: 4096 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Parent array: Array_0000

Number of disks: 2

Array disk: W2A9FML6

Array disk: W2A8Y3FN

Name: DataVol

Status: Normal

Type: RAID 1

Size: 1,397 GB

Data strip size: 64 KB

Write-back cache: Enabled

System volume: No

Initialized: Yes

Verification errors found: 0

Blocks with media errors: 0

Physical sector size: 512 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Parent array: Array_0001

Number of disks: 2

Array disk: 9VS09EMW

Array disk: 9VS039L3

Disk on port 0

Port location: Internal

Status: Normal

Usage: Array disk

Size: 466 GB

Serial number: W2A9FML6

Model: ST500DM002-1BD142

Firmware: KC45

System disk: No

Password protected: No

Disk data cache: Disabled

Native command queuing: Yes

SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/s

Physical sector size: 4096 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 1

Port location: Internal

Status: Normal

Usage: Array disk

Size: 466 GB

Serial number: W2A8Y3FN

Model: ST500DM002-1BD142

Firmware: KC45

System disk: No

Password protected: No

Disk data cache: Disabled

Native command queuing: Yes

SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/s

Physical sector size: 4096 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 2

Port location: Internal

Status: Normal

Usage: Array disk

Size: 1,397 GB

Serial number: 9VS09EMW

Model: ST31500341AS

Firmware: SD17

System disk: No

Password protected: No

Disk data cache: Enabled

Native command queuing: Yes

SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/s

Physical sector size: 512 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 3

Port location: Internal

Status: Normal

Usage: Array disk

Size: 1,397 GB

Serial number: 9VS039L3

Model: ST31500341AS

Firmware: SD17

System disk: No

Password protected: No

Disk data cache: Enabled

Native command queuing: Yes

SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/s

Physical sector size: 512 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Empty port

Port: 4

Port location: Internal

Empty port

Port: 5

Port location: Internal