From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 11 19:15:12 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E003B16A405 for ; Fri, 11 May 2007 19:15:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from bunrab.catwhisker.org (adsl-63-193-123-122.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [63.193.123.122]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8597313C44C for ; Fri, 11 May 2007 19:15:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from bunrab.catwhisker.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by bunrab.catwhisker.org (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id l4BJFCWk021573; Fri, 11 May 2007 12:15:12 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from david@bunrab.catwhisker.org) Received: (from david@localhost) by bunrab.catwhisker.org (8.13.3/8.13.1/Submit) id l4BJFBBT021572; Fri, 11 May 2007 12:15:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from david) Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 12:15:11 -0700 From: David Wolfskill To: Scott Long Message-ID: <20070511191511.GX64542@bunrab.catwhisker.org> Mail-Followup-To: David Wolfskill , Scott Long , stable@freebsd.org References: <20070510200211.GM64542@bunrab.catwhisker.org> <4643A739.3080601@samsco.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="QbLupA6O8PZD6SZa" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4643A739.3080601@samsco.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 6.2-R on Dell Poweredge 2950 with Dell PERC 5/i [mfi(4)] X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 19:15:13 -0000 --QbLupA6O8PZD6SZa Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, May 10, 2007 at 05:14:01PM -0600, Scott Long wrote: > ... > Not sure that this impression is entirely accurate. The biggest problem > with MFI machines is online RAID management. The storage driver itself > matured very quickly and has been very reliable. Ah; good to know: thank you. > >Well, now a colleague is trying to run 6.2-R on one of these 2950s; dmesg > >says the controller is: > > > >mfi0: mem 0xd80f0000-0xd80fffff,0xfc4e0000-0xfc4fffff ir= q=20 > >78 at device 14.0 on pci2 > ... > >and the disks looks like: > > > >mfid0: on mfi0 > >mfid0: 418176MB (856424448 sectors) RAID volume '' is optimal > > >=20 > Looks A OK to me. Even better. :-) > >The intended production workload involves creation and deletion of > >a large number of files rather rapidly. > ... > sysctl vfs.ffs.doasyncfree=3D0 might help. Running the syncer more=20 > frequently might also help, but I don't recall the sysctl node for > that. OK; I've relayed your suggestion to my colleague, but haven't heard back from her yet. > ... > Very strange. No chance that it was due to files that were deleted but > still referenced by open apps? I don't think so. She's deployed 13 other boxen over the last few years with -- naturally! -- different hardware specs, but all running essentailly the same application. The big question for her is whether or not the Dell 2950, as specified, will do the job. > ... > This sounds purely like a filesystem issue, not an MFI driver issue. Hmmm... I'll admit to knowing little about RAID configurations; is it possible that some RAID configurations might exacerbate problems with such a workload -- or that others might be more amenable to it? Thanks again! Peace, david --=20 David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org Believe SORBS at your own risk: 63.193.123.122 has been static since Aug 19= 99. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key. --QbLupA6O8PZD6SZa Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkZEwL4ACgkQmprOCmdXAD35awCfWkOYgghLVhyM/J+GY8ez9+Hl qYAAn0ajQXxwnP844XH6K0Som2Q4tWKF =RjL2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --QbLupA6O8PZD6SZa--