Summary: Will Battery Backup Speed up Raid Set.

From: Ron Bramblett (bramblet_at_fuller.com)
Date: 09/13/04

  • Next message: Reiner Dassing: "SUMMARY: HSG80 Fan failure"
    Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:59:05 -0500
    To: Unix Managers <tru64-unix-managers@ornl.gov>
    
    

    Hello,

    My original question
    Just curious basically.

    I have a AS2000 with 2 300Mhz CPU's, 4-member raid 5 set on KZPSC-BA. 512MB
    memory

    I bought a KZPSC-UB battery backup and was wondering what I can check before I
    install it and then again after to see the difference.

    Has anyone done this before? I know how to do it, I was just wondering if it
    will help in any forseeable way.

    Answers from
            rob.leadbeater
                            It probably will speed it up for some operations.
    With the battery installed, then the write cache functions of the card
    can/will be enabled, so you should see a performance gain when writing.

             
            Jeffrey_Hummel
                            If the battery is working you should be able to set up a write-behind
    cache. I'm not sure what messages will tell you if it is really working.

            "Fred N. van Kempen"
                            Yes, because it will enable the "Delayed Write-Back Cache", which
    vastly improves the speed on disk *write* operations.

            Selden E Ball Jr
                            The battery backup is for when your RAID subsystem loses power for whatever
    reason. It won't make any difference in performance.

            "Maaskant, Gert"
                            Yes you can...
    You can enable write back cache, that makes the writes mutch faster. The KZP
    controller told UNIX that the writes are done, bud in real life is isn't.
    It's difficult how to monitor, before and after. Because the write time are
    not real counters.(After install)

    I installed the battery over the weekend. And haven't seen any results yet.
    My error (write-back cache was already installed)

    I tested it by filling up one partition of the System disk with multiple files
    and then when nothing was going on, I wrote a script to copy the files to the
    raid set. I timed this operation

    I then tested it after I got the battery installed. Same script as above. The
    first one took 9 minutes 13 seconds and the second one took 9 minutes 15
    seconds

    But thinking about this now, if I would have had the battery installed on
    August 20th, I could probably have gotten by without reinitializing the raid
    set and copying the data from tape back to it.
    That would have saved me 4 or 5 hours and they could have had the system
    around noon on Friday instead of noon on Sat.

    Thanks everyone.

    -- 
    Ron Bramblett
    Fuller Brush Company
    Systems Adminstrator
    Almost 100 years strong and still going ...
    

  • Next message: Reiner Dassing: "SUMMARY: HSG80 Fan failure"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Address book problem
      ... Jim Pickering wrote: ... Some computer shops install software that may/may not be completely legal. ... but the important question to me is why the battery went ka-pooey twice ... you'd think I could get Outlook Express to work! ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress)
    • Re: Newbie with 10s of questions
      ... I know that Windows tends to deteriorate ... Most Mac software doesn't need an installer, ... > 4) How do I install and uninstall apps? ... > 7) How should I treat the battery? ...
      (comp.sys.mac.misc)
    • AIGD module wasRe: Need help designing an automotive engine run detector.
      ... It really depends on who does the install. ... Most are installed by auto electronics shops (and then cleaned up by ... Directly wired to the battery. ... turn it on and off or is that the purpose of the engine run detector? ...
      (sci.electronics.design)
    • Re: Address book problem
      ... Jim Pickering wrote: ... Some computer shops install software that may/may not be completely legal. ... > but the important question to me is why the battery went ka-pooey twice ... > you'd think I could get Outlook Express to work! ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress)
    • Re: Failed Hard Drive
      ... I went thru your instructions, and lo and behold, removing the battery ... After their install, I hit the enter key to go to ... My problem remains - no driver on this new hard drive, ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)