OpenIndiana runs very slowly with M1015 cards installed

[mstroud]

Now that I've had a week of testing under my belt I think I can ask this question with a straight face: is there anything that can be done to fix the abysmal speed of just running OI on a system with IBM M1015 HBA cards installed?

Since putting them (a total of 3) into my new system, the OS itself is slower than anything I've ever seen. Sometimes the OS never seems to boot. When it does, it takes what seems like minutes for the a shell to start and even longer for the NAPP-IT interface to become available. Taking out the M1015 cards seems to fix the issue, but then I have no drives attached, which makes the point moot.

If it makes any difference this is a SuperMicro motherboard and I am accessing the box over the IPMI View app. For what its worth, even getting access over ssh is very slow without any KVM funny business. I have not flashed any firmware on the cards and the OI install is a fresh one to a 2.5 SATA HDD with just NAPP-IT installed.

My advanced thanks for any ideas or assistance.

 

[gea]

Now that I've had a week of testing under my belt I think I can ask this question with a straight face: is there anything that can be done to fix the abysmal speed of just running OI on a system with IBM M1015 HBA cards installed?
..

I do not have these cards but they are widely used with good success so what you need to do is to eliminate possible reasons like

- work at local console (ipmi problem)
- use only one or another M1015 (hardware problem)
- try this card in another slot
- flash M1015 or ask other M1015 users
http://forums.servethehome.com/forumdisplay.php?19-RAID-Controllers-and-Host-Bus-Adapters

 

[mstroud]

So far, nothing is helping out here.

- Directly attached display, keyboard and mouse vs IPMI: makes no difference
- One, two or three M1015 cards installed: no change
- Other slots: not available
- Flash to IT mode: done, no change

For the sake of completeness, I tested booting to DOS or Ubuntu on this same set of hardware they show no problems at all. The OS's are responsive and everything works as you would expect. This issue seems to be related to the combination of my hardware and an install of OI and NAPP-IT. At some point soon I'll need to decide if I can live with this or abandon OI+NAPP-IT.

 

[sotech]

A little perplexing... I've used OI+napp-it on four or five of our servers so far with M1015 cards and have had zero issues with anything like this - the boot times do lengthen a little with each add-in card but since they're servers that never really bothered me as they're rebooted less than once a month. Napp-it comes up pretty well straight away regardless and ssh logins take seconds at most the first time and are instant after that. We've only ever used Asus workstation boards or Intel server boards, though, never a Supermicro.

...none of that is particularly helpful to you, though, I suppose. This might, though - you could try skipping loading the mptsas2.rom back onto the cards when you put them into IT mode - I found that helped boot times a little as it doesn't load the boot BIOS for each card.

 

[MiniKnight]

I use a bunch of them no issues but I disabled option roms for all of them.

 

[unclerunkle]

If you are still in a need of a solution, this might be related. Originally when running ESXi and OpenIndiana, I had a problem when starting the OpenIndiana VM where it would hang sometimes on startup (the loading bars would never stop). After much troubleshooting, I found that it had to do with the number of processors and virtual CPU's I was providing to it. Once I dropped it down to a 1 socket, dual core, everything worked great. Now, not sure if your having the same issue or not, but something worth investigating. BTW, I have the Supermicro X9SCM-F, Xeon E3-1230, and 3 M1015s.

 

[gea]

The "use only one CPU in ESXi" is only a problem in ESXi 4, not with ESXi5 and not when running barebone.
But there seems to be some problems especially with IT firmware (IR firmware ok) as reported in
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1038567494&postcount=9

maybee try IR mode or other firmware options from
http://forums.servethehome.com/forumdisplay.php?19-RAID-Controllers-and-Host-Bus-Adapters

In general, the IBM is good for the price but if you want a trouble free controller based on LSI 2008,
prefer the original LSI 9211. Not as cheap but from my experience one of the best options for ZFS.

 

[OBasel]

gea you should write an article with Patrick on the All-in-One setup and recommened hardware. He is the hardware guy and you are the software guy. Seems like a killer guide opportunity to see you work together on something like that.

 

[gea]

gea you should write an article with Patrick on the All-in-One setup and recommened hardware. He is the hardware guy and you are the software guy. Seems like a killer guide opportunity to see you work together on something like that.

Beside a lot of working options, i am under the impression that a good ZFS experience from hardware side is nearly guaranteed when using a SuperMicro Mainboard with Intel server chipsets and LSI HBA controllers. Seems like SUN build Solaris mainly on top of this hardware family.

There are a lot of experiences with newer hardware now. Summarize results is the key. This is why i love Servethehome and add comments here. Its one of the best resources of independant technical informations and recommendations about Storage components that I know. Articles at a very profound level together with the forum and its independand meanings are quite unique.

I'm sure, you will find more articles and meanings here about ZFS options, All-In-One is one of them

 

[Patrick]

Beside a lot of working options, i am under the impression that a good ZFS experience from hardware side is nearly guaranteed when using a SuperMicro Mainboard with Intel server chipsets and LSI HBA controllers. Seems like SUN build Solaris mainly on top of this hardware family.

There are a lot of experiences with newer hardware now. Summarize results is the key. This is why i love Servethehome and add comments here. Its one of the best resources of independant technical informations and recommendations about Storage components that I know. Articles at a very profound level together with the forum and its independand meanings are quite unique.

I'm sure, you will find more articles and meanings here about ZFS options, All-In-One is one of them

Thanks gea. I will be documenting my All-In-One build and doing a series on the site for it. I do want to get back to doing more on the software side in conjunction with hardware reviews.