RAID 1 (mirror) read speed as fast as RAID 0 (stripe)

To our big surprise, the new Intel Raid controller on the Motherboard Intel DX79TO (ver. AAG28805-401) with Intel X79 Express Chipset shows awesome read performance.

The raid model is Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise 3.0 (Intel Rapid Storage enterprise – SATA Option ROM – 3.0.1.1370, 2003-2011), which in Microsoft Windows is reported as “Intel C600 Series Chipset SATA RAID Controller”.

Usually, with old Intel RAID models (till ICH10R?), RAID 1 mirror reads only from the one drive at the same time. The last time we tested this, was November 2010 with Intel RAID controller ICH10R.

Now, our test shows, that the new Intel RAID 1 reads from the both mirror drives simultaneously. Writing speed stays the same, however reading speed is twice as fast. Basically, you get read performance the same as from RAID 0 stripe.

Our test setup.

For more details, see the screenshots at the end of this post.

Test results.

HD Tune for SSD shows 957.0 MB/s
HD Tune for SSD shows 957.0 MB/s
HD Tune for HDD shows 182.0 MB/s
HD Tune for HDD shows 182.0 MB/s
9 folders with 20 GB test files. 213.85 MB/s Seagate HDD RAID 1 speed.
9 folders with 20 GB test files. 213.85 MB/s Seagate HDD RAID 1 speed.
Hash & CRC SSD RAID 1 reading speed 1.03 GB/s
Hash & CRC SSD RAID 1 reading speed 1.03 GB/s
FAR Manager SSD RAID 1 reading speed 911.87 MB/s. Little slower, because of NUL device.
FAR Manager SSD RAID 1 reading speed 911.87 MB/s. Little slower, because of NUL device.
FAR Manager HDD RAID 1 reading speed 206.61 MB/s.
FAR Manager HDD RAID 1 reading speed 206.61 MB/s.
Windows Expirience Index via winsat for both drives
Windows Expirience Index via winsat for both drives

Conclusion.

It is possible to get a stunning HDD/SSD read performance with consumer grade hardware. Also, note that in this setup the SSD reading speeds exceeds 1000 MB/s or 1 GB/s. The whole setup costs about $1500.

Winsat for both drives, text version:

C:\Windows\system32>winsat disk -drive d
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -ran -read'
> Run Time 00:00:05.89
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -seq -read'
> Run Time 00:00:04.16
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -seq -write'
> Run Time 00:00:04.48
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -flush -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:03.39
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -flush -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:10.89
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -hybrid -ran -read -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive d -hybrid -ran -read -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Disk Random 16.0 Read 2.73 MB/s 4.5
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read 151.95 MB/s 7.1
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write 170.69 MB/s 7.2
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes 2.495 ms 6.8
> Latency: 95th Percentile 48.211 ms 1.9
> Latency: Maximum 228.174 ms 7.2
> Average Read Time with Random Writes 11.562 ms 4.1
> Total Run Time 00:00:29.69
C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>winsat disk -drive c
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -ran -read'
> Run Time 00:00:00.22
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -seq -read'
> Run Time 00:00:02.45
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -seq -write'
> Run Time 00:00:02.16
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -flush -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:00.59
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -flush -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:00.59
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -hybrid -ran -read -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.02
> Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -hybrid -ran -read -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Disk Random 16.0 Read 252.32 MB/s 8.0
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read 892.28 MB/s 8.4
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write 491.88 MB/s 8.1
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes 0.226 ms 8.5
> Latency: 95th Percentile 0.432 ms 8.7
> Latency: Maximum 2.235 ms 8.8
> Average Read Time with Random Writes 0.228 ms 8.8
> Total Run Time 00:00:06.39

Executing very large script on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 fails

I was trying to execute very large .sql script in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, that runs on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.

First I tried to copy/paste script into Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. The server has plenty of memory about 5 GB RAM, and script file is about 150 MB in size and line count is about 1 million, so I do not see problem here. Copy/paste part went ok, however after executing script and after long wait, Management Studio surrendered with “Query completed with errors”:
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
------------------------------
Cannot execute script.
------------------------------
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Insufficient memory to continue the execution of the program. (mscorlib)
------------------------------
OK
------------------------------

bl-sql-1

Next I tried various combinations of T-SQL command line tools:
osql -S iDGZdb-dev -i test2.sql -U myuser
sqlcmd -S IDGZDB-DEV -i test2.sql -U myuser
osql -t 100000 -a 65535 ...

Still no success. Various errors appeared in console. Running locally on SQL server:
[SQL Server Native Client 10.0]
Shared Memory Provider: No process is on the other end of the pipe.
[SQL Server Native Client 10.0] Communication link failure

Running on remote machine:
[SQL Server Native Client 10.0]
TCP Provider: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
[SQL Server Native Client 10.0]Communication link failure

Tried to search for Google and didn’t find any solution. There were many forums where users ask for help about this issue, but no single answer. Suggested “failed network equipment” is nonsense, if I run script locally, there should be no network involved.

Looked in the System event log under Application logs on the Windows Server where SQL Server resides. Luckily there was an error from the SQL Server:
Log Name: Application
Source: MSSQLSERVER
Date: 2013.02.04. 17:37:41
Event ID: 7836
Task Category: Server
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: iDGZdb-dev
Description:
A fatal error occurred while reading the input stream from the network. The maximum number of network packets in one request was exceeded. Try using bulk insert, increasing network packet size, or reducing the size of the request. The session will be terminated.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="MSSQLSERVER" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">7836</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>2</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-02-04T15:37:41.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>223808009</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>iDGZdb-dev</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Binary>...some hex stuff...</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

But unfortunately, the error reveals very little about the problem. Didn’t get this part of suggestion “… or reducing the size of the request”. The request of 150 MB is too big for the latest edition of MS SQL? Seriously?

Note: Ok, ok… Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is out, and I am not an expert in this area, however, if MySQL can handle scripts in size of gigabytes and Oracle too, then I must be doing something very wrong, but again, then where are all suggestions in the net? Even StackOverflow has only guesses about “network equipment”.

Next, I tried to increase the packet size as suggested in System log message. More statements were executed from the SQL script, however, it still stopped with a memory error:
There is insufficient system memory in resource pool 'internal' to run this query.
Network packet size (bytes): 32576

How I solved this? I surrendered, and instead of wasting time with weird T-SQL error messages, I wrote a little C# script, that executes my file line by line. All of my SQL statements were one-liners. It took me about 1/2 hour to write this script and execute it.

Here is relevant code fragment:
SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(Properties.Settings.Default.YourConnectionString);
connection.Open();
System.IO.StreamReader file = new System.IO.StreamReader(yourFilename);
while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
    try
    {
        SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(line, connection);
        command.ExecuteNonQuery();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        LogErrorSomewhere(ex.Message, line);
    }
}

file.Close();

P.S. If you know, how to execute a such script using standard SQL tools, then you are welcome to leave me a comment.

Building OpenSSL with Visual Studio 2010 for x64 / Win64 causes error

visual-studio-2010-x64-cross-tools-command-prompt

Today I was trying to build the latest OpenSSL 1.0.1c with Visual Studio 2010. Following instructions form the INSTALL.W32, I was able to successfully build the 32-bit version. Trying the same with 64-bit (x64) version, again following the official instructions from INSTALL.W64.
To build for Win64/x64:
> perl Configure VC-WIN64A
> ms\do_win64a
> nmake -f ms\ntdll.mak
> cd out32dll
> ..\ms\test

The first line ‘perl Configure VC-WIN64A’ went without any errors:
Configuring for VC-WIN64A
no-ec_nistp_64_gcc_128 [default] OPENSSL_NO_EC_NISTP_64_GCC_128 (skip dir)
no-gmp [default] OPENSSL_NO_GMP (skip dir)
no-jpake [experimental] OPENSSL_NO_JPAKE (skip dir)
no-krb5 [krb5-flavor not specified] OPENSSL_NO_KRB5
no-md2 [default] OPENSSL_NO_MD2 (skip dir)
no-rc5 [default] OPENSSL_NO_RC5 (skip dir)
no-rfc3779 [default] OPENSSL_NO_RFC3779 (skip dir)
no-sctp [default] OPENSSL_NO_SCTP (skip dir)
no-shared [default]
no-store [experimental] OPENSSL_NO_STORE (skip dir)
no-zlib [default]
no-zlib-dynamic [default]
...
...
...
SIXTY_FOUR_BIT mode
DES_INT used
RC4_CHUNK is unsigned long long
Configured for VC-WIN64A.

The second line ‘ms\do_win64a’ always returned errors:
ml64 -c -Foms\uptable.obj ms\uptable.asm
Microsoft (R) Macro Assembler (x64) Version 10.00.40219.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Assembling: ms\uptable.asm
ms\uptable.asm(356) : error A2088:END directive required at end of file
ms\uptable.asm(356) : fatal error A1010:unmatched block nesting : _lazy18

Luckily I found solution in cyber-lynx.livejournal.com
Translation from Russian:
To prevent this, need to change file ms\do_win64a.bat like this: instead of

perl ms\uplink-x86_64.pl masm > ms\uptable.asm
ml64 -c -Foms\uptable.obj ms\uptable.asm

write

perl ms\uplink-x86_64.pl masm > ms\uptable.asm
ping 127.0.0.1
ml64 -c -Foms\uptable.obj ms\uptable.asm

It seems like race condition to me. Command ‘ping 127.0.0.1’ just adds a pause between two commands.

Thanks to Белая рысь (cyber_lynx)! Source: http://cyber-lynx.livejournal.com/40001.html