POOR PERFORMANCE ON IBM ADVANCED SERIALRAID/X ADAPTER

Subject: POOR PERFORMANCE ON IBM ADVANCED SERIALRAID/X ADAPTER
New Netfinity server RETAIN Tip: 

    Record number:       H167012
    Device:              D/T8680
    Model:               M
    Part number:         P/N09L2123
    Hit count:           UHC00000
    Success count:       USC0000
    Publication code:    PC50
    Tip key:
    Date created:        O99/07/22
    Date last altered:   A99/07/27
    Owning B.U.:         USA


Abstract: POOR PERFORMANCE ON IBM ADVANCED SERIALRAID/X ADAPTER

TEXT:

Poor performance on IBM Advanced SerialRAID/X Adapter.

SYMPTOMS:

Poor performance when using the IBM Advanced SerialRAID/X Adapter compared to earlier IBM SSA Adapters when running under Microsoft Windows NT V4.0.

PROBLEM ISOLATION AIDS:

•  The system is any of the following IBM servers:

       a Netfinity 7000-M10 server, Type 8680, any Model.
       a Netfinity 7000 server, Type 8651, any Model.
       a Netfinity 5500-M20 server, Type 8662, any Model.
       a Netfinity 5500-M10 server, Type 8661, any Model.
       a Netfinity 5500 server, Type 8660, any Model.
       a Netfinity 5000 server, Type 8659, any Model.

•  The system is any of the following OEM servers:

       a Compaq ProLiant 6500 server, any Model.
       a Compaq ProLiant 7000 server, any Model.
       a Dell PowerEdge 4300 server, any Model.
       a Dell PowerEdge 6350 server, any Model.
       a Hewlett-Packard NetServer LH II server, any Model.

•  The system is configured with the following option:
  •  IBM Advanced SerialRAID/X Adapter, Option P/N 09L2123, FRU P/N 09L2124, Feature Code 4040.

•  The system is configured with Windows NT 4.0 and Service Pack 4.
•  The 1.07 and earlier Device Driver for the IBM Advanced SerialRAID/X Adapter is affected.
•  The system's Diagnostics pass.

FIX:

Download and install the NT SSA Device Driver V1.08 (or later).
The download package is available from the following URL:

http://www.hursley.ibm.com/ssa/pcserver
click on "PC Download"
click on "NT4 dld"
click on "RAID/X Adapter"
look for "Host SW (Device Drivers)"

Follow the instructions in the download package for installing the Device Driver.

Note: The machine should be re-booted following installation of the new device driver.

DETAILS:

When installing the IBM Advanced SerialRAID/X Adapter a request queue length of 512 is automatically entered into the NT Registry.
Under Service Pack 4, this value is incorrectly interpreted by NT, resulting in a much smaller queue length of 16 being used, which results in poor performance.
Under Service Pack 5, this value is correctly interpreted, thus helping the adapter to achieve much better performance compared to earlier SSA Adapters.
The V1.08 Device Driver package available from the SSA Customer Web site has a new OEMSETUP.INF file which sets a value of 511.
Under NT SP4 this will be interpreted as 255 (the highest value which SP4 will correctly handle), while under SP5 it is correctly interpreted as 511.
In either case this will still result in better performance than earlier adapters.
The change to the Registry should be made whenever this adapter is used, even if other, earlier SSA adapters are installed in the same machine.

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