System just horribly slows down ...

[cqxx]

Hello everyone,

I've got my DELL PowerEedge 2850 running 2008R2
and I wants to attach my new 2TB barracuda via PCI-X eSATA RAID Controller.

So, I install new RAID controller ;
PCI-X 64bit 4 Port eSATA RAID Controller Card SIL3124 RAID 0, 1, 5,0+1
with newest BIOS 6.6.00
and driver; 1.5.23.0
+ SATARAID5 1.5.5.1 (array manager)

than
my new brand hard disk ;
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 2TB (7200rpm) SATA 64MB (Internal) Code: ST2000DM001

which I fit in to the separate box with regular ATX PSU 300W, so the Barracuda is powered directly from this PSU

and than
connected via cable;
SATA to ESATA External Shielded Lead Cable 1.5Gbps (1m lenght) straight to the RAID controller in my PE2850

so, disk appears in system just fine, I create RAID group with Contiguous disk in this array manager, and than logical disk.
I can normally create folders ect. but when I copy in to barracuda from another disk, Its go f**kt... whole system just go so SLOOOW like impossible to do anything, just restart..

there are no errors in any logs.

does anyone of you my friends have any ideas ?

 

[Mu33rto]

Make sure DMA mode is selected and not pio mode.

 

[cqxx]

hello mate,

thank you for your replay,

Device information on the controller says;

---device information---
type; disk drive (capacity 2000.40 GB)
Model; ST2000DM001-9YN.....
firmware ..;..CC4C
serial number; ...xxx
ATA version; ATA/ATPI-8
look ahead; enabl.
write cache; enbl.
current transfer mode; Ultra DMA mode 6
host link speed; generation 2 (3.0 Gb/s)
device speed link; -----||-----
______________

obviously DMA is ON ?

thanks very much

 

[Mu33rto]

Yes DMA is enabled. Open task manager and go to processes. Copy some files over to hdd. Look for any process that starts to act strange. Maybe that can narrow down the problem

 

[cqxx]

hi,
so I did as you advice,

I copied BIG(700mb) file to the new barracuda.

I cant really see because ALL is freeze, but IDLE SYS process at this time is on 98CPU, rest is on 0(zero), nothing suspicious

strange think is that (array manager) pop-up message; "new event" nothing else.
I cant see what's on because it's all HANG, nothing in logs after restart.

another thing is that when I was copying a smaller file (300Kb) I could see the transfer drop down to 3Kb/s ... and system went SLOOOW .... later CPU goes up to 30% usage, and still toooo slow.. just reset help.

I know how crazy it is ...
there is any possibly that power drop is involve in it ?


thanks again

 

[Mu33rto]

Have you had any issues with psu? Try another pci-x slot and a different sata port. Have you used linux at all?If so burn a distro to a cd or create a usb boot disc. Boot to it and run the operation system like normal. If the system don't crash then its going to be there is some issue with windows.Maybe driver or software. If it does crash then its hardware related. You can also try hirens boot cd. Which you can boot into mini xp to do some testing.

Also you don't have another RAID Controller laying around which you can swap out to see if thats the problem. Also if you know how to use a multi meter you can check to see if the volts from the psu stay within range or if it drop at a certain point. If not get swap out with another one that doesn't have issues just to test it out

 

[Unolocogringo]

Sorry if I am confused.
But it appears that you are trying to configure a raid array with partitions from a single disk.
You can create a raid array with partitions from different disks, but not partitions from the same disk.

 

[cqxx]

Hi, Rick_Criswell
thank you for help,

I also try with another disk, RAID_0, strip (extra MAXTOR)., still the same problem doesn't matter what combination ...
I've switch in to the another channels (on the card) ... still fokov!

it looks like It doesn't matter what I setup in the RAID array, after all , its still HANGs as I use this disk.

the disk works fine until I copy in to it from another ,...
it starts, and going down down-to 3Kb/s ...and HANG

.. thanks

"""""""GOD DAMN, I JUST WANT EXTERNAL DISK CONNECTED TO MY PE2850...

 

[unksol]

There ARE signal voltage differences between SATA and esata. They are minor, but can rarely cause issues. And I don't know about that 1 meter cable either... So does the raid card have any internal SATA ports you can connect the drive to, just to see if the problem goes away?