Data Fever: Ultra320 SCSI from Adaptec and LSI Logic

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Test Setup

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Test System
Processor2x Intel Pentium 4 Xeon, 2.8 GHz
MotherboardSupermicro X5DL8ServerWorks GC-LE
RAM2x 512 MB PC2100/DDR266Registered, ECC - Samsung
IDE ControllerSB7440 UltraATA/100 Controller
System Hard DriveIBM Deskstar 60 GXP, IC35040, 40 GB, 7,200 rpm
Test Hard Drive6x Seagate Barracuda 10K.4 (ST 3146807LW), 147 GB, 10,000 rpm, Ultra320 SCSI
Display AdapternVIDIA GeForce4 MX440, PCI, 64 MB
Network CardBroadcom BCM5703, 1 Gb/s, on board
Operating SystemWindows 2000 Server SP3
Benchmarks and Tests
Access TimeZD WinBench 99 2.0
Performance TestsIntel IOMeter 2003.02.15
I/O PerformanceIntel IOMeter 2003.02.15
Drivers and Settings
Graphics DrivernVIDIA 44.03
DriversWindows 2000 Server default Chipset drivers
DirectX Version9.0

Because we have not used Intel's IOMeter software often up to this point, we would like to briefly explain the test procedure.

IOMeter allows access patterns to be generated for one or several drives, so that a typical system requirement can be re-created. For this article, we used four test processes:

  1. Maximum data transfer rate in MB/s
  2. AggregateBlock sizeProportion of read accessesProportion of random accesses100%64 kB100%0% (sequential)

No doubt this test is very theoretical and only serves the purpose of determining the maximum transfer rate. We are dispensing with write accesses and random accesses - only sequential reading is in demand.

  1. Maximum I/O performance in I/Os per second
  2. AggregateBlock sizeProportion of read accessesProportion of random accesses100%512 Byte100%0% (sequential)

In this area, we measured with 1, 4, 8, 16, 64 and 256 I/Os per drive access, since this can vary depending on the controller. Once again, this test only represents a theoretical result, as block sizes of 512 Bytes would hardly be used in practice.

  1. File server access pattern (recommended by Intel)
  2. AggregateBlock sizeProportion of read accessesProportion of random accesses10%512 Byte80%100%5%1 kB80%100%5%2 kB80%100%60%4 kB80%100%2%8 kB80%100%4%16 kB80%100%4%32 kB80%100%10%64 kB80%100%

In this respect, we measured with 4, 16, 64 and 256 I/Os for each access. The distribution of the required block sizes corresponds to the recommendation by Intel and simulates the environment of a typical file server quite efficiently. We used a total of six hard drives, which ensures high usage of the controller.

  1. Database access pattern
  2. AggregateBlock sizeProportion of read accessesProportion of random accesses100%8 kB67%100%

The last access pattern is used by other online magazines as well: with a block size of 8 kB, it reflects other database applications.

Patrick Schmid