IBM ServeRAID m5014 benchmarks

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ESS

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Dec 5, 2012
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Installed this RAID controller, before buying one couldn't find any benchmarks, so in case someone is interested, here are some tests which was done on my server.

Information:
Raid Controller: IBM M5014 256MB
Firmware: 12.12.0-0126


Table of content:
1. x4 HDDs (each 1TB) in RAID-10 mode with writeback enabled
2. x4 HDDs (each 1TB) in RAID-10 mode with writeback disabled
3. x1 HDD, no RAID, system disk. (to compare how it performs without a RAID)



1. x4 HDDs (each 1TB) in RAID-10 mode with writeback enabled














 
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Patrick

Patrick

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Very cool!

Are these going into dedicated server 2 or 3 systems?
 
E

ESS

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Dec 5, 2012
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3. x1 HDD, no RAID, system disk. (to compare how it performs without a RAID)












 
Patrick

Patrick

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That's what I was thinking. BTW what do you use to do those watermarks? Photoshop batch?
 
E

ESS

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Patrick said:
That's what I was thinking. BTW what do you use to do those watermarks? Photoshop batch?
Click to expand...
TSR Watermark Image Software, maybe no the most ideal solution, but does it job and works on Windows 8
 
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mrkrad

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Oct 13, 2012
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for $66 it's not bad to use two in a machine. The 9265 dual-core powerpc models are faster than a 9260(m5014) with fastpath (all ssd).

I've got one in a dl360 - works great but fastpath doesn't work so hot with a mix of drives and ssd (no idea why, random iops cut in half but linear speed is the same).

Also have one in a R610 all samsung 830 with raid-10 and they work great but the drive lights don't light up (r610 only).

I've got two powering 16 samsung cheapie $50 50gb SLC drives (ebay/amazon has them) i'll have to post it up.

9265 -> faster than two 9260's but you can't beat the $66 price tag of the m5014.

Rock solid with both dell and hp servers and hp workstations.

make sure you use dual-ported sas drives, they can support it for redundancy and more bandwidth. IIRC they may even support cluster mode windows 2012 - where you can take 1 jbod across two servers and share a raid using CSV2 filesystem
 
E

ESS

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Dec 5, 2012
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mrkrad said:
for $66 it's not bad to use two in a machine. The 9265 dual-core powerpc models are faster than a 9260(m5014) with fastpath (all ssd).

I've got one in a dl360 - works great but fastpath doesn't work so hot with a mix of drives and ssd (no idea why, random iops cut in half but linear speed is the same).

Also have one in a R610 all samsung 830 with raid-10 and they work great but the drive lights don't light up (r610 only).

I've got two powering 16 samsung cheapie $50 50gb SLC drives (ebay/amazon has them) i'll have to post it up.

9265 -> faster than two 9260's but you can't beat the $66 price tag of the m5014.

Rock solid with both dell and hp servers and hp workstations.

make sure you use dual-ported sas drives, they can support it for redundancy and more bandwidth. IIRC they may even support cluster mode windows 2012 - where you can take 1 jbod across two servers and share a raid using CSV2 filesystem
Click to expand...

I bought it several months ago and even for used and refurbished price wasn't so low back then, can't say about current price, can you share any link where it sells with that price? Anyway, i don't use it in RAID-5 where actually on-board RAID chip starts working, i doubt that 9265 in mirroring and striping operations would squeeze a lot more from my HDDs, but can't be totally sure without benchmarks, 1GB RAM could make some difference, though.
 
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mrkrad

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Oct 13, 2012
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i posted it to the follow up on the great deals $109 thread. Looks like they sold out, they have another variant for $92 now. The post has been up for a few weeks so I suspect many folks have grabbed them. I got two for home so I can do some cross flashing of features.

Going to work on the uart side to change the vendor id so i can intel activation hardware keys for fastpath/cc 1.0. odd thing these cards slow down (random) when you have drives and ssd's with fastpath. Linear is the same [slower than no fastpath] but random eats it 50%. If i rock only SSD i don't get that oddity.

Could be the sas-expander.

Reason the ibm perf key is so expensive (even refurb is $260) is that you get every feature there is.

A really good alternative is to find the HP version , it has the key and works with the old fastpath/CC 1.0 physical key but announces itself as a lsi 9261 and it is not branded as HP. plopped in a $50 cachecade/fastpath key off ebay and woot.

Going to compare and contrast the cards to see how to get a non-ibm feature key to work.
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Only IBM keys work on ServeRAIDs.
I have an Intel CC v2 pro key, but it doesn't work with the M5015 :(

The hardware keys are hardware coded, there is a tiny 6 pin EEPROM chip on both the key and the controller.
These are coded, when key is inserted the security key in the ROM must match the one on the controller and unlocks the features.

Good luck bypassing this.

Software keys are a better route, if we can just enable this on ServeRAIDs
 
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mrkrad

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Oct 13, 2012
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yeah the intel spec says it is a encrypted boot rom. old cars used this tech where the jump vector started the encryption routine.

just read on intel website that FASTPATH requires no hard drives in the system period. d0h!
 
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