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Promise SX4000 Raid 5 extremely slow

I just built a server. It has an Intel S845Wd1-e motherboard, p4 2.4 Ghz chip, 1Gb DDR Ram etc... I just loaded Winows 2000 server with SP3. It takes about 7 - 10 minutes for Windows to completly start. The array seems to be the issue. I have the latest drivers and firmware on the Sx400 card. Its configured for Raid 5 with 3 Seagate barracuda 7200 rpm drives. When the system is starting, the drives seem to read for a second, then stop for a second. I have spoke with Promise technical support and they have no solution. This Event log error shows up after each reboot. I'm not sure if its related or not.

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Service Control Manager
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      7009
Date:            7/29/2003
Time:            12:32:42 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      SERVER
Description:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the Promise Array Message Agent service to connect.

TGHI

Things to ask yourself:

-Are all of the drives used exactly the same (as in model #)? Sometimes using different drives can cause problems because they have different hardware.
-What stripe and cluster sizes did you set the array to run? This is an important part of the RAID and how it handles data. Incorrect settings can result in poor performance.

Personally, I would look into how well the drives are working, as RAID 5 doesn't really like the disks failing and tends to hang if one of the disks are damaged or corrupt.

TGHI (www.tghi.n3.net)

dkuhlman

ASKER

All drives are identical. Block size is 64kb. All drives are brand new and functional.

sbutel

HI ,

I have just built a windows 2000 small Buiness server with a Promise SX4000 Raid 5. I am having the same speed issues as yourself.

Will let you know if I have any success.

steve

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Suburb-Man

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Suburb-Man

Promise Driver/policy/info Update: LOGO DRIVER!!!
Driver Name: SATA150 TX Series Windows Driver
File Size:      393.11KB
Version:      1.00.0.27b
Platform:      Windows 98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/Server 2003
Release Date: 2003/7/21
Description      - Adds Windows Server 2003 support- Includes Microsoft Logo driver for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003- Fixes compatibility issue with nVidia chipset- Speeds up hard disk detection

Guess Kalen Kimm didn't know what was going on at Promise!!!
I am assuming LOGO driver and WHQL passed driver is the same thing.

Suburb-Man

Oops wrong PROMISE website paste, here is the right information.
FastTrak S150 TX Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 Drivers 580.87KB 1.00.0.37
Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 2003/9/5
Description - Microsoft WHQL logo
- Add support for Promise SuperSwap 1100 hot swap enclosures
- Add Windows Server 2003 support
- For Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003

The previous comment (wrong paste) is for the non-RAID SATA150 TX card.

Maybe K.Kimm was right at the time 8/11/03, maybe Promise changed their mind, submitted, and got certified in less than 1 month by 9/5/03? I don't think so!