Hi all,
After doing a couple of days research and trying firmware and driver updates I run out of ideas on what could be the problem with a Bladeserver BL460c and a mezzanine card nc382m (Broadcom 5709S - 1Gb 2-port).
I've tried with the following combinations:
HP custom ESXi 5.1.0 Update2 5.66.28:
driver scsi-bnx2i 2.7a.03.v50.2-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 Broadcom
HP ESXi 5.5.0 1746974-HP-5.72A.3-Jun2014 -
driver - scsi-bnx2i 2.78.76.v55.1-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820 Broadcom
driver - scsi-bnx2i 2.710.50.v55.1-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820 Broadcom (latest version from VMWare's website, dated 30-Oct-2014)
I've configured the card following the instructions of VMWare for 'Dependent hardware iSCSI' which is the case of the mezzanine card I'm using. I also followed the instructions in 'HP Virtual Connect with iSCSI Cookbook'. I'm just using one of the NICs on that card, leaving the other one unconfigured but I'm planning to use it for Round Robin multipath once I realize why is it so slow on reading. Creating a VM with CentOS minimal, the storage is an iSCSI SAN that is where the VMDK of the VM is stored at, and running the following commands this is what I get:
Writing - from RAM (1GB) to disk:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test bs=4k count=512k
524288+0 records in
524288+0 records out
2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 16.6002 s, 129 MB/s
After this test I create a test file with random info the following way: dd if=/dev/urandom of=/test2 bs=4k count=512k
Reading - from disk to /dev/null
dd if=/test of=/dev/null bs=4k count=4k (only 4k as it will take a very long time to complete)
4096+0 records in
4096+0 records out
16777216 bytes (17 MB) copied, 70.1791 s, 239 kB/s
The output from hdparm:
hdparm -t /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 2 MB in 29.53 seconds = 69.35 kB/sec
If you need them, I will share the current VConnect and ESXi network and/or storage configuration, but before jumping into any conclusion, please, be aware that using exactly the same settings except for the mezzanine card which I replaced for a nc553m (Emulex 10Gb 2-port). These are the results:
Writing - from RAM (1GB) to disk:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test bs=4k count=512k
524288+0 records in
524288+0 records out
2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 18.7712 s, 114 MB/s
After this test I create a test file with random info the following way: dd if=/dev/urandom of=/test2 bs=4k count=512k
Reading - from disk to /dev/null
dd if=/test2 of=/dev/null bs=4k count=512k
524288+0 records in
524288+0 records out
2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 17.9035 s, 120 MB/s
Also note that I'm using a HP 1/10Gb-F VC-Enet module which limits the downlinks to 1GB so there is no reason for paying such a high price for 10GB mezzanine cards when the VC module is limiting it to 1GB anyway.
As the only difference is the mezzanine card, the Emulex is a 'Hardware Independent iSCSI card' and the configuration is slightly different than for the Broadcom. Everything else is exactly the same: same slot, same VConnect modules, same transceivers, same iSCSI SAN, same VM, same volume, same Bladeserver, same ESXi version.
I don't know if I could be misconfiguring something or missing an important point. Please, let me know if you need more information or to run any command as this is a testing environment and I'm free to test anything.
Thanks!