My client is upgrading from an ML350G5 to ML350eG8 server in a 15 client environment. Initial trials show that the new server gives significantly slower data access/process times versus the existing.
Even when working directly on the server (ML350eG8), application start times, screen paints and data population are significantly slower on the new server compared with the old one (ML350G5).
Can I define each scenario and ask if anyone can suggest where improvements are most likely to come from?
Old Server: ML350 G5. 2 x Xeon E5345 (QC 2.3GHz 8M 1333MHz). 4GB RAM. Smart Array E200i 128MB with 6 HDDs: 2 lots of 3Drive RAID5 300gb 15k SAS drives giving 558GB each on C:drive and G:drive. WSBS2003R2 on drive C: and Business Critical Application (BCA) also on C: Drive. The second RAID5 drive (558gb) is General File Storage.
New Server: ML350e g8. 2xQC xeon e5-2403, 64GB RAM. B120i/Zero Memory. The are 2 *2TB drives in RAID1 for Drive C: and 2*2TB drives in RAID1 for Drive G:2.
The upgrade plan includes a separation of SBS from mission critical DB onto virtual servers and, hopefully, no loss of performance.
ML350eG8 has Win2008R2 Ent installed on 2TB C:drive. Another Win2008R2 Ent with Mission Critical Software is on HyperV machine on D: (partition on h: drive). Sever WINSBS011 is also on a HyperV machine on the C:drive partition.
Questions:
- Will the delays I am seeing be from slower HDD (7.2ksata vs 15k sas), from raid setup (Raid 1 vs raid5), or the slower CPU speed (1.8 vs 2.3)?
- Would adding the Battery backed write cache help the B120i much?
- Would I get much improvement by adding a PCI raid controller, drive cage and 10k/15k sas drives in Raid 5?
- Would this sas drive cage add much noise to the unit?
- What other options exist to improve data read times?