[OmniOS-discuss] anyone doing DirectPath I/O?

[Tim Rice]

On Thu, 4 Dec 2014, Linda Kateley wrote:

| Just curious, how fast is the nfs in this config?

Is fast enough a good enough answer? :-)

The only actual hard data I have (over any length of time) is
what my backup program reports. So picture 3 evolving configurations.
First the system common to all 3, a Solaris Express Community Edition
box with 4 SATA drives in a raidz configuration. That's where
the backups get written via ftp. (Yes I know you asked about NFS,
we'll get to that)

Now to establish a baseline, when the machine being backed up,
a UnixWare 7.1.4 box, was running native backups would average
29.85G/hr and verify would average 49.10G/hr.

Now we introduce the all in one box mentioned below. The OmniOS
r151006 VM is providing NFS storage to it's ESXi host for the
UnixWare 7.1.4 VM. Both VMs using E1000 nics. Now backups
are averaging 31.19G/hr and verify 50.44G/hr. This is with no
compression (on the UnixWare backup program) so the increase in
CPU power would not be helping there. So obviously NFS is not
getting in the way here. Faster then the native 6 drive raid
in the HP DL385.

Now let's say your ESXi was a little behind in it's patches and
you load all the current patches. Oops. Your entire system
falls on it's face. Network throughput is at least an order of
magnitude slower.

More info here

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2078636

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2092809

So after switching to vmxnet3 nics on the OmniOS VM and reconfiguring,
things were back to normal. Actually it seemed better than before.
The current numbers seem to confirm this. Backups are averaging
33.32G/hr and verify 56.42G/hr.

Now what I have noticed over the life of this system (installed July 2013)
although not recently, is what another poster described where from
time to time everything seems to lock up for about 5 to 15 seconds.

I hope this helps answer your question.

| 
| linda
| 
| On 12/4/14, 1:11 AM, Tim Rice wrote:
| > On Wed, 3 Dec 2014, Schweiss, Chip wrote:
| > 
| > | I've been using DirectPath with ESXi 5.0 with an LSI HBA for almost 2
| > years
| > | to an OpenIndiana server.  It's been very stable:
| > 
| > My all in one box (Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-0) was on ESXi 5.1 for
| > about a year with a LSI SAS3801E and a LSI SAS9211-4i. I've since
| > updated to ESXi 5.5 update2. The OmniOS r151006 VM provides NFS
| > storage to the ESXi host for (currently) 15 running VMS as well
| > as well as NFS home directories for various other computers around
| > the office. Other than drives failing, it's been working reasonably
| > well for what it is.
| > 
| > |
| > | root at zfs01:~# uptime
| > |  21:01pm  up 649 days  6:58,  2 users,  load average: 0.46, 0.30, 0.25
| > |
| > |
| > | On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Joseph Boren <jboren at drakecooper.com>
| > wrote:
| > |
| > | > Greetings,
| > | >
| > | > I was wondering if anyone was using DirectPath, specifically for
| > exclusive
| > | > use of a drive controller and attached drives to a specific VM.    I
| > have a
| > | > use case that would seem to be a good fit for this, so I played around
| > with
| > | > a couple of RAID controllers I had, and was able to get one (3ware
| > 9650se)
| > | > configured for directpath, but none of the drives attached would show to
| > | > OmniOS, regardless of how I configured them in the raid bois (JBOD,
| > | > individual disks, etc).  I know that controller is poorly supported and
| > I
| > | > was curious if anyone was using DirectPath  this way in production and
| > what
| > | > kind of drive controller/HBA/whatever was working.  Also any "for the
| > love
| > | > of god don't do it this way" scenarios?  I seem to be really adept at
| > | > finding and trying those out first....
| > | >
| > | > Thanks a ton and best regards,
| > | >
| > | > -jb-
| > | > *Joseph Boren*
| > | >
| > | > IT Specialist
| > | > *DRAKE COOPER*
| > | > + c: (208) 891-2128 + o: (208) 342-0925
| > | > + 416 S. 8th St., Boise, ID 83702
| > | > + w: drakecooper.com + f: /drakecooper <http://facebook.com/drakecooper>
| > +
| > | >  t: @drakecooper <http://twitter.com/drakecooper>
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > _______________________________________________
| > | > OmniOS-discuss mailing list
| > | > OmniOS-discuss at lists.omniti.com
| > | > http://lists.omniti.com/mailman/listinfo/omnios-discuss
| > | >
| > | >
| > |
| > 
| 
| _______________________________________________
| OmniOS-discuss mailing list
| OmniOS-discuss at lists.omniti.com
| http://lists.omniti.com/mailman/listinfo/omnios-discuss
| 
| 
| 

-- 
Tim Rice				Multitalents	(707) 456-1146
tim at multitalents.net