[Solved]Slow Parity Performance after migration to new hardware

[csmith665]

Hello everyone,

 

Today I moved UnRAID to new hardware and after the migration, parity synchronization seems to be extremely slow at less than 25MB/s.  Previous to the migration, I was getting 88MB/s to 100MB/s.  Overall, the system seems to perform OK other than the parity performance.  The interface is responsive for the most part (seems to slow down occasionally) and I'm copying data to a new drive over the network.  Speeds are between 36 and 50 MB/s.  A copy of the syslog is attached

 

Troubleshooting completed:

• On first boot, the 8tb drive that was implemented into the array today had XFS errors.  I believe this was because I started the array, then stopped it a few moments later while parity was calculating for the rebuild.  Since I still have the old drive, I opted to reformat in XFS and manually copy the data.  It is worth noting that the new drive was pre-cleared for two passes prior to installation today.
• Restart OS.
• Move parity off 9211 controller, per documentation.
• Validate write performance to disk network share is within expected ranges.
• Re-created the UnRAID USB flash drive, per a post about parity performance following hardware migration.
• Ran 'Fix Common Problems' plug-in, errors were only related to shares being cache only.
• Originally, user shares were disabled.  When I enabled them, performance on parity seemed to increase from less than 10 MB/s to about 15 MB/s. Prior to this change, I had not see over 10MB/s.
• Swapped PCI-E ports on TS140.  (Bottom x16 port is only wired for x4 performance)
• Moved all WD Green drives (only WD Reds remaining) off the 9211 controller.

 

Old Hardware:

• Core2Extreme processor.  Don't remember model.
• On-board SATA with an add-in PCI-E controller
• 2gb RAM
• 6 data drives

 

New Hardware

• TS140 with a e3-1225 (don't remember version, 2 or 3, maybe?)
• 9211-8i controller
• 20gb RAM
• Added an 8tb drive (Drive was pre-cleared on old system before migration.  WD Green decommissioned)
• Power supply from old build was moved to New hardware.

 

Does anyone else have any recommendations?

 

tower-syslog-20170804-1613.zip

Edited August 7, 2017 by csmith665

[csmith665]

Since my original post, I've done a little more digging about the LSI card and think it is ultimately the culprit.  It was just purchased from Ebay with IT mode already configured because I was concerned about compatibility of configuration.  After removing the card, parity rates well over 100MB/s.

 

I did notice a few things:

• The card's BIOS calls it a 9211-8e, rather than the 8i, which has me wondering if it's either got the wrong software on it, or is a fake.  
• The card's BIOS date is from 2014, which seems to be outdated.  

I tried calling LSI to validate the serial number, but an automated message told me to go online due to call volumes.  I then tried to re-flash the card into IT mode and update the BIOS, but after an hour of trying to get my machines to boot into the EFI shell, I'm giving up for now. 

 

I'll continue to update this thread as I find things out, but if anyone has any insight into the card BIOS saying 9211-8e, rather than 8i, I'd love to hear about it.

Edited August 5, 2017 by csmith665

[JorgeB]

There's a user who recently bough a card with the same issues, wrong firmware and low performance, turns out it was a chinese fake.

 

Edit to add link:

 

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by johnnie.black

[csmith665]

Thank you for the link.  The symptoms are almost exactly the same and I suspect it's a fake card more than ever.  I'll work on initiating a returned/refund.  

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to buy a similar card from a reputable seller? 

 

Edit: It turns out that I bought the card from the same seller in the link.

Edited August 5, 2017 by csmith665

[BobPhoenix]

1 hour ago, csmith665 said:

Thank you for the link.  The symptoms are almost exactly the same and I suspect it's a fake card more than ever.  I'll work on initiating a returned/refund.  

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to buy a similar card from a reputable seller? 

 

Edit: It turns out that I bought the card from the same seller in the link.

I would look for a used one pulled from a server.  Those are not likely to be counterfeit.  It's what I've stuck to when buying my 9201-16i's.

Edited August 5, 2017 by BobPhoenix

[csmith665]

Thank you for the recommendation BobPhoenix.