2-node cluster - low storage performance

[primo]

Hello,

we have configured a 2-node cluster according to the manuals, but the storage performance seems to be lower than expected (when copying files, we get sometimes 250 MB/s and sometimes much lower speeds).

Here is an example, when we start copying we get 200 MB/s+ and after a while we are at 40 MB/s.

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This is our storage config (each host):

HDD: 4x 2.4TB 10K SAS
Hardware RAID (1 GB BBWC)
- RAID type: RAID 10
- Disk cache policy: Disabled
- Write policy: Write-back
- Read policy: Read-ahead
- Stripe Size: 64K

The vHDDs inside VSA appliances are thick provision eager zeroed and Heartbeat/iSCSI and Sync networks are 10GbE with jumbo frames enabled.

Device settings:

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Is there anything else we can do to improve storage performance?
Would changing the VSA VM performance profile make a difference?

Thanks!

Best Regards,
primo

[yaroslav (staff)]

Welcome to StarWind Forum. That's the known issue of SMB data transfer in Windows Server (see the workaround here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... e-transfer).
May I ask about the bandwidth of the Management link (data is likely to be copied over it)?

[primo]

Hello,

thank you! The Management link is 1Gb/s, while the Heartbeat/iSCSI/vMotion and Synchronization links are 10 Gb/s.

10.20.10.0/24 = Mgmt
172.16.10.0/24 = Heartbeat/iSCSI/vMotion
172.16.20.0/24 = Sync

sync.PNG (31.17 KiB) Viewed 3386 times

Best Regards!

[primo]

I've performed another test - I've added two 20 GB drives to a VM. The first was located on a "StarWind" datastore, the other was directly on the VMware's datastore.

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[yaroslav (staff)]

The Management link is 1Gb/s, while the Heartbeat/iSCSI/vMotion and Synchronization links are 10 Gb/s.

Copying most probably is done over 1 Gbps link

Use a larger file, please. Run tests using diskspd as described here https://www.starwindsoftware.com/best-p ... practices/.

[primo]

I've checked, but the management link is not being used (see the ~300 MB/s (+-50 MB/s) limit in both tests.

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What I find quite interesting is the huge difference when using small I/O sizes (16 KB )

[yaroslav (staff)]

Is it possible to connect the underlying storage as RDM disk or PCI device?