asked on

How do we check to see if cache is working on a Dell H800?

Dell H800 with suddenly 20% slower performance. All cpu's are good, battery healthy, RAID array on MD1200 are healthy. How do we check the write cache on the controller? Feels like the old days when the EMC CX500 cache battery died and the cache was disabled.

With this server, though, (running Solaris), we can't tell if the cache is enabled or not.

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bhunger

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We ran megacli and got this (nothing jumped out at us):

Adapter #1

==============================================================================
Versions
================
Product Name : PERC H800 Adapter
Serial No : 2B8002A
FW Package Build: 12.10.4-0001

Mfg. Data
================
Mfg. Date : 11/09/12
Rework Date : 11/09/12
Revision No : A00
Battery FRU : N/A

Image Versions in Flash:
================
BIOS Version : 3.18.00_4.09.05.00_0x0416A000
FW Version : 2.100.03-1584
Preboot CLI Version: 04.04-010:#%00008
Ctrl-R Version : 2.02-0025.1
NVDATA Version : 2.07.03-0003
Boot Block Version : 2.02.00.00-0000
BOOT Version : 01.250.04.219

Pending Images in Flash
================
None

PCI Info
================
Controller Id : 0000
Vendor Id : 1000
Device Id : 0079
SubVendorId : 1028
SubDeviceId : 1f15

Host Interface : PCIE

Number of Frontend Port: 0
Device Interface : PCIE

Number of Backend Port: 8
Port : Address
0 500c04f288afddbf
1 500c04f288afdd3f
2 0000000000000000
3 0000000000000000
4 0000000000000000
5 0000000000000000
6 0000000000000000
7 0000000000000000

HW Configuration
================
SAS Address : 590b11c0234b2900
BBU : Present
Alarm : Absent
NVRAM : Present
Serial Debugger : Present
Memory : Present
Flash : Present
Memory Size : 1024MB
TPM : Absent
On board Expander: Absent
Upgrade Key : Absent
Temperature sensor for ROC : Absent
Temperature sensor for controller : Absent

Settings
================
Current Time : 12:30:33 6/11, 2019
Predictive Fail Poll Interval : 300sec
Interrupt Throttle Active Count : 16
Interrupt Throttle Completion : 50us
Rebuild Rate : 30%
PR Rate : 30%
BGI Rate : 30%
Check Consistency Rate : 30%
Reconstruction Rate : 30%
Cache Flush Interval : 4s
Max Drives to Spinup at One Time : 4
Delay Among Spinup Groups : 12s
Physical Drive Coercion Mode : 128MB
Cluster Mode : Disabled
Alarm : Disabled
Auto Rebuild : Enabled
Battery Warning : Enabled
Ecc Bucket Size : 15
Ecc Bucket Leak Rate : 1440 Minutes
Restore HotSpare on Insertion : Disabled
Expose Enclosure Devices : Disabled
Maintain PD Fail History : Disabled
Host Request Reordering : Enabled
Auto Detect BackPlane Enabled : SGPIO/i2c SEP
Load Balance Mode : Auto
Use FDE Only : Yes
Security Key Assigned : Yes
Security Key Failed : No
Security Key Not Backedup : No
Default LD PowerSave Policy : Controller Defined
Maximum number of direct attached drives to spin up in 1 min : 0
Auto Enhanced Import : No
Any Offline VD Cache Preserved : No
Allow Boot with Preserved Cache : No
Disable Online Controller Reset : No
PFK in NVRAM : No
Use disk activity for locate : No
POST delay : 90 seconds

Capabilities
================
RAID Level Supported : RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID6, RAID00, RAID10, RAID50, RAID60, PRL 11, PRL 11 with spanning, PRL11-RLQ0 DDF layout with no span, PRL11-RLQ0 DDF layout with span
Supported Drives : SAS, SATA

Allowed Mixing:

Mix in Enclosure Allowed

Status
================
ECC Bucket Count : 0

Limitations
================
Max Arms Per VD : 32
Max Spans Per VD : 8
Max Arrays : 128
Max Number of VDs : 64
Max Parallel Commands : 1008
Max SGE Count : 60
Max Data Transfer Size : 8192 sectors
Max Strips PerIO : 42
Max LD per array : 16
Min Strip Size : 8 KB
Max Strip Size : 1.0 MB
Max Configurable CacheCade Size: 512 GB
Current Size of CacheCade : 0 GB
Current Size of FW Cache : 896 MB

Device Present
================
Virtual Drives : 4
Degraded : 0
Offline : 0
Physical Devices : 52
Disks : 48
Critical Disks : 0
Failed Disks : 0

Supported Adapter Operations
================
Rebuild Rate : Yes
CC Rate : Yes
BGI Rate : Yes
Reconstruct Rate : Yes
Patrol Read Rate : Yes
Alarm Control : Yes
Cluster Support : No
BBU : Yes
Spanning : Yes
Dedicated Hot Spare : Yes
Revertible Hot Spares : Yes
Foreign Config Import : Yes
Self Diagnostic : Yes
Allow Mixed Redundancy on Array : No
Global Hot Spares : Yes
Deny SCSI Passthrough : No
Deny SMP Passthrough : No
Deny STP Passthrough : No
Support Security : Yes
Snapshot Enabled : No
Support the OCE without adding drives : Yes
Support PFK : No
Support PI : No
Support Boot Time PFK Change : No
Disable Online PFK Change : No
Support Shield State : No
Block SSD Write Disk Cache Change: No

Supported VD Operations
================
Read Policy : Yes
Write Policy : Yes
IO Policy : Yes
Access Policy : Yes
Disk Cache Policy : Yes
Reconstruction : Yes
Deny Locate : No
Deny CC : No
Allow Ctrl Encryption: No
Enable LDBBM : Yes
Support Breakmirror : No
Power Savings : No

Supported PD Operations
================
Force Online : Yes
Force Offline : Yes
Force Rebuild : Yes
Deny Force Failed : No
Deny Force Good/Bad : No
Deny Missing Replace : No
Deny Clear : No
Deny Locate : No
Support Temperature : No
Disable Copyback : No
Enable JBOD : No
Enable Copyback on SMART : No
Enable Copyback to SSD on SMART Error : No
Enable SSD Patrol Read : No
PR Correct Unconfigured Areas : Yes
Enable Spin Down of UnConfigured Drives : No
Disable Spin Down of hot spares : Yes
Spin Down time : 30
T10 Power State : No
Error Counters
================
Memory Correctable Errors : 0
Memory Uncorrectable Errors : 0

Cluster Information
================
Cluster Permitted : No
Cluster Active : No

Default Settings
================
Phy Polarity : 0
Phy PolaritySplit : 0
Background Rate : 30
Strip Size : 64kB
Flush Time : 4 seconds
Write Policy : WB
Read Policy : Adaptive
Cache When BBU Bad : Disabled
Cached IO : No
SMART Mode : Mode 6
Alarm Disable : Yes
Coercion Mode : 128MB
ZCR Config : Unknown
Dirty LED Shows Drive Activity : No
BIOS Continue on Error : No
Spin Down Mode : None
Allowed Device Type : SAS/SATA Mix
Allow Mix in Enclosure : Yes
Allow HDD SAS/SATA Mix in VD : No
Allow SSD SAS/SATA Mix in VD : No
Allow HDD/SSD Mix in VD : No
Allow SATA in Cluster : No
Max Chained Enclosures : 4
Disable Ctrl-R : No
Enable Web BIOS : No
Direct PD Mapping : No
BIOS Enumerate VDs : Yes
Restore Hot Spare on Insertion : No
Expose Enclosure Devices : No
Maintain PD Fail History : No
Disable Puncturing : No
Zero Based Enclosure Enumeration : Yes
PreBoot CLI Enabled : No
LED Show Drive Activity : No
Cluster Disable : Yes
SAS Disable : No
Auto Detect BackPlane Enable : SGPIO/i2c SEP
Use FDE Only : Yes
Enable Led Header : No
Delay during POST : 2
EnableCrashDump : No
Disable Online Controller Reset : No
EnableLDBBM : Yes
Un-Certified Hard Disk Drives : Allow
Treat Single span R1E as R10 : Yes
Max LD per array : 16
Power Saving option : All power saving options are disabled
Default spin down time in minutes: 30
Enable JBOD : No
TTY Log In Flash : No
Auto Enhanced Import : No
BreakMirror RAID Support : No
Disable Join Mirror : No
Enable Shield State : No
Time taken to detect CME : 60s

Exit Code: 0x00