Will upgrading MB on RB-1200 improve performance significantly?

[timz]

I purchased the RB-1200 server  close to 5 years ago now. (Jan 2010).  It is still working great.  Will upgrading the motherboard or SATA cards increase performance at all?  I have 10 disks in the array and it takes about 2.5 days to perform a parity check (1 6TB, 3 4TB, and some smaller disks).  I am not sure what the limiting factor is in my performance, is it the MB or harddrives themselves? Thanks.

[dikkiedirk]

I purchased the RB-1200 server  close to 5 years ago now. (Jan 2010).  It is still working great.  Will upgrading the motherboard or SATA cards increase performance at all?  I have 10 disks in the array and it takes about 2.5 days to perform a parity check (1 6TB, 3 4TB, and some smaller disks).  I am not sure what the limiting factor is in my performance, is it the MB or harddrives themselves? Thanks.

 

Do you have a system spec? I do't know the RB-1200.

 

Several smaller disks in the array will affect speed. 2.5 days seems rather slow though.

[timz]

Sorry, the RB-1200 is a tower that was sold by limetech back in 2009/2010. I went to the syslog to look up some of the specs., here they are:

 

RAM:  2 GB

Model: Custom

System: ASUSTeK Computer INC. - P5LD2-VM

CPU: Intel® Celeron® CPU E1500 @ 2.20GHz

Cache: 32 kB, 512 kB

Memory: 11264 MB (max. 1 GB)

Network: eth0: 100Mb/s - Full Duplex

Kernel: Linux 3.17.4-unRAID x86_64

OpenSSL: 1.0.1j

 

I am not sure if this is enough info, I was just looking to find out if I upgraded the motherboard/CPU if it would help with speed of xfer/access to the server. During a parity check i get ~17 MB/s with 10 drives. OF course this gets faster as the smaller drives are completed. (I think up to 80 MB/s).

[timz]

So based on a search of the forums I don't think I will get much improvement if using this "as is" for a NAS only, however if I plan on doing any virtualization (which I am), it is worth upgrading.

[pengrus]

Well, it is certainly true that if you plan on virtualization, upgrading is probably a must.  But 60 hours is an incredibly long time for a parity check IMO.  What, specifically, are the 10 drives you are running in there?

[dikkiedirk]

More normal would be that in the beginning of a parity check you get the highest speeds which drops towards the end.

Those smaller disk might have a big influence,

 

My 18 disk array consist of 2, 3 and 4 TB disks. I see a parity check starting at 120 MB/s and ending at 50-60 MB/s. I also see drops toward the 2 and 3 TB boundary. I have a 54 TB array and a parity check takes about 14 hours. CPU and memory could also influence parity check speed.

 

 

[timz]

So I have:

4  2TB

2  3TB

3  4TB

1  6TB  (Parity)

 

I have the opposite going on. It is slow when all 9 disks are up for the parity and (16.5 MB/s) and speeds up as disks drop off line.

 

 

[dikkiedirk]

Should not be a problem really. However the in the final 2 TB only the parity disk is accessed. Which disk controllers are involved? It also could be a loaded CPU or memory. Are all disks relatively new ?

[timz]

I will have to check which controller is being used for the parity disk. Do you mean a onboard controller as opposed to one one on a PCI bus? The disks range from 4-5 years old to a few months (the smaller the older).

 

 

[dikkiedirk]

Well the motherboard has 4 SATA ports onboard. So I gues you have at least one PCI or PCI-E controller. If it is a PCI controller with 6 ports that could well be the bottleneck.

[timz]

I have 4 Sata connections to the mobo, and 2 PCI cards with 4 sata connections each. The parity is connected to one of the PCI cards. I can move it to one of the onboard and see what happens.

[itimpi]

I have 4 Sata connections to the mobo, and 2 PCI cards with 4 sata connections each. The parity is connected to one of the PCI cards. I can move it to one of the onboard and see what happens.

If they are PCI cards (rather than PCI-e cards) then it is almost certainly that they cannot handle 4 drives in parallel without throttling their speed.  I would think you should preferentially use the mobo ports for the drives you want to get the maximum performance from and try and limit the number connected to each of the PCI cards.

[timz]

They are Promise Technology 4-PORT Serial ATA SATA300 TX4 Controllers. Here is the link on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009U6140/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1.  Is this my limiting factor?

[prostuff1]

They are Promise Technology 4-PORT Serial ATA SATA300 TX4 Controllers. Here is the link on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009U6140/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1.  Is this my limiting factor?

Yes those are your limiting factor.

 

You could speed things up by replacing those two cards with either a AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 or IBM Serveraid M1015.  The M1015 card would need to be flash to work.

 

You would also need the cables to hook the drives up tot he cards but you would probably cut the parity check time to half a day instead of two and a half.

[WeeboTech]

 

This is a pretty popular motherboard these days

 

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182821

 

 

Consider the cost of updating the controller vs this motherboard which has 14 hard drive ports available right on the motherboard.

If you want to do virtualization, a new motherboard would be helpful.

 

 

 

 

[timz]

Thanks WeeboTech, that looks like a good option. Definitely a good cost considering that no additional purchase of SATA controllers is necessary.

 

[prostuff1]

Thanks WeeboTech, that looks like a good option. Definitely a good cost considering that no additional purchase of SATA controllers is necessary.

but you will need new RAM and processor to go in that board.  You would likely end up spending more than just getting one of the cards I mentioned.

[WeeboTech]

Thanks WeeboTech, that looks like a good option. Definitely a good cost considering that no additional purchase of SATA controllers is necessary.

but you will need new RAM and processor to go in that board.  You would likely end up spending more than just getting one of the cards I mentioned.

 

It is a complete system upgrade with all the bells and whistles.

From what I saw, the specs of what is there now is pretty modest. (and OLD!)

 

You can go with a modest processor and ram to start (even used from ebay)

 

Point is, if you are going to spend funds, spend funds moving forward where the investment will last.

 

if I plan on doing any virtualization (which I am), it is worth upgrading.

 

If you definitely plan to virtualize, then pick a processor with VT-D

[prostuff1]

It is a complete system upgrade with all the bells and whistles.

From what I saw, the specs of what is there now is pretty modest. (and OLD!)

 

You can go with a modest processor and ram to start (even used from ebay)

 

Point is, if you are going to spend funds, spend funds moving forward where the investment will last.

The controller card may be useful later.  It really comes down to how much he wants to spend right now.

 

 

My main box is still running on a Quad core LGA 775 socket processor with ESXi (4.1 i think) as the virtualization layer.  Quite frankly, it wont be changing until something decides to fubar itself.  I have nearly a year of uptime on that box right now and I am not touching it until the power goes out long enough that the UPS can't keep it online.  I have another 8GB of RAM to add to the box but have not wanted to shut everything down to install it.

 

 

If you definitely plan to virtualize, then pick a processor with VT-D

Yup, which will likely cost about $200 fro the motherboard and another $200 for the processor... with another ~$200 for 16GB of RAM.

[WeeboTech]

If you definitely plan to virtualize, then pick a processor with VT-D

Yup, which will likely cost about $200 fro the motherboard and another $200 for the processor... with another ~$200 for 16GB of RAM.

 

Given that some type of upgrade is required to satisfy a diminished parity check/sync/rebuild time there are the factors of not needing a controller that will probably end up idle. (unless growth to 22 drives is in the future).

 

minus the cost of a controller that will probably end up idle  ~ $110.

minus the cost of SFF-8077 Serial break out cables ~ $15-$20 each (requires 2) ~ $30-$40.

 

In addition, the new motherboard combo provides an additional 4 ports as to what is available at the moment, plus IPMI.

 

newegg often has package deals on the motherboard/cpu combo. Memory is pretty much the same cost all the time ~$175 now for 16GB.

If you have a newegg preferred card, you can get 12 months interest free payments for purchases over $500.

(yea,sounds like a sales pitch I know, However that was my last deciding factor)

 

Could go cheap and satisfy the immediate need with a lower powered CPU / less ram, but there's a big benefit with unRAID 6, 64 bit mode and the removal of low memory limit.

[WeeboTech]

I have 4 Sata connections to the mobo, and 2 PCI cards with 4 sata connections each. The parity is connected to one of the PCI cards. I can move it to one of the onboard and see what happens.

 

For now, I would suggest putting the fastest largest drives on the motherboard.

The PCI cards are holding everything back, but once those drives are satisfied, the operations should occur faster.

 

From what I can tell on the ASUS site, the PCI slots are 2.2, which 'should' support 66Mhz PCI cards.

The Promise TX4's are 66Mhz, so perhaps inspecting the bios to see if something has to be enabled for the faster support.

I couldn't find the motherboard PDF. I've actually had good performance with those cards, however my array wasn't as wide at the time.

 

For now you could get one of those SIL3132 2 port x1 cards for around $20 and see some performance boost, albeit not that much.

Plus I'm not a fan of purchases for something that doesn't solve a longer term goal or will end up idle.

 

Can't tell you how often I've purchased controllers that now sit in a box. (but then again, I like to test and benchmark allot of stuff).

[timz]

Thanks, I have put the 6TB drive on the MB and started a parity check, still gettting around 17MB/sec. I want to to do some virtualization the the server so I think I will go with the MOBO suggested by WeeboTech. Newegg has a combo deal with the processor for $550. A little more than I want to spend (also does not include memory), but I think I will be happy long term. Here is a link to the deal.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2001862

 

[WeeboTech]

I was able to score a combo deal with the E3-1241 v3, poke around s'more.

You might save a few dollars and a few watts. The mobo doesn't require a CPU with built in graphics.

i.e. unless you know specifically that's what you want.

 

If you had wanted to virtualize and do pass through with a video card, I think it requires a discreet video card in a PCIe slot.

 

[prostuff1]

Thanks, I have put the 6TB drive on the MB and started a parity check, still gettting around 17MB/sec. I want to to do some virtualization the the server so I think I will go with the MOBO suggested by WeeboTech. Newegg has a combo deal with the processor for $550. A little more than I want to spend (also does not include memory), but I think I will be happy long term. Here is a link to the deal.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2001862

 

That processor is way overkill for most anything.  Something around the Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 or above range is the best bang for the buck.

 

Not sure if you have a micro center near you but the E3-1240 can be had for a little cheaper (even with sales tax) then buying it online.

[WeeboTech]

This one shows up for $458.

 

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600

bundled with:

1x Intel Xeon E3-1241 v3 Haswell 3.5GHz 8MB L3 Cache ...

In stock. Limit 3 per customer.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2001880

 

 

I think I looked at the motherboard. ( I think newegg tracks that )

Then poked around for CPU's and saw the Combo offer in the lower left.

 

The mhz under the decimal isn't going to equate to much.

What helps in virtualization is the larger cache. 

So go for the lowest quad core with hyperthreading and the 8MB cache and work up from there.

(Taking into account, the combo offer and any gift cards newegg provides).

Sometimes it looks like you are spending more until you add up all the other parts.

 

FWIW, I have a 1230 Sandy bridge in another machine and I'm perfectly happy with it.