HP A7173A PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Host Bus Adapter Performance White Paper for HP PA-RISC Servers

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HP A7173A PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Host Bus Adapter

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................2

Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................................2

Test Results ...................................................................................................................................................................3

I/Ops .........................................................................................................................................................................3

Service Demand ....................................................................................................................................................4

Throughput ..............................................................................................................................................................5

Scalability.................................................................................................................................................................6

System Configuration Guidelines ............................................................................................................................7

Test Details ...................................................................................................................................................................8

Products Used in Testing........................................................................................................................................8

Test Configuration ..................................................................................................................................................9

Additional Information ..............................................................................................................................................9

Performance Paper for HP PA-RISC Servers

Summary of content (9 pages)

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HP A7173A PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Host Bus Adapter Performance Paper for HP PA-RISC Servers Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................................... 2 Test Results ..................................
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Introduction This whitepaper provides I/O performance and CPU utilization information for the HP A7173A PCI-X Dual-Channel Ultra320 SCSI Host Bus Adapter (A7173A U320 Adapter), and highlights its significant performance increase over the HP A6829A PCI Dual Channel Ultra160 SCSI Host Bus Adapter (A6829A U160 Adapter) on HP’s PA-RISC based servers. A series of tests were conducted to evaluate the overall performance, specifically I/O’s per second (I/Ops) and throughput (MB/sec), of both adapters.
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Test Results All performance data was obtained using “Diskbench” (DB), an I/O performance measurement tool. For all I/Ops testing, a standard DB block-size of 1KB was used, while throughput required a standard DB block-size of 256KB. The overall throughput of a storage solution helps model large, sequential data transfers similar to a remote backup system, a multimedia file-server, or any other system which must simultaneously transfer large amounts of data.
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Service Demand The A7173A U320 adapter creates a low service demand for smaller sized I/O operations. As a result, the A7173A can perform more I/Ops without putting additional strain on the CPU and system resources. To illustrate the vastly improved service demand of the A7173A U320 adapter over the A6829A U160 adapter, service demand tests with both adapters were performed on an HP rp4440 with a single dual-core CPU.
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Throughput As previously mentioned, the A7173A U320 adapter boasts 521.1 MB/sec dual-channel read throughput to power the most demanding applications. However, the most impressive performance difference is highlighted within the A7173A U320 adapter’s CPU Utilization. As shown below, the A7173A U320 adapter can increase throughput by fifty-one percent over the A6829A, while increasing CPU Utilization less than five percent.
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Scalability The A7173A dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI adapter offers an impressive level of linear scalability for the most intense SCSI storage systems. Using two A7173A dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI adapters in nonshared PCI bus slots can dramatically increase your SCSI read-throughput to over 1000 MB/sec; equivalent to approximately eighty-two percent of the Four-Bus U320 SCSI Theoretical Maximum.
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System Configuration Guidelines To get the best performance from an HP Ultra320 SCSI products, it’s important to follow a few simple guidelines. Adapter Firmware Firmware is the embedded system that controls data operations on the SCSI bus. Be sure that the A7173A dual Ultra320 SCSI adapter is operating with the latest firmware available from HP. Keeping the adapter firmware up-to-date helps ensure data integrity and overall adapter performance.
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Test Details The performance results presented in this paper were obtained with one A7173A dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI adapter, and one A6829A dual channel Ultra160 SCSI adapter install in a single HP rp4440 PA-RISC Server. Products Used in Testing products used for performance measurement HP 9000 rp4440 PA-RISC Server • Single PA-8880 Dual-Core Processor • A7173A U320 SCSI Driver (Version B.11.11.01) • 2GB System Memory • HP-UX 11.
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Test Configurations General Test Configuration The general test configuration consisted of a single HP 9000 rp4440 PA-RISC Server attached to multiple HP MSA30 SB storage units via multiple A7173A and A6829A dual channel SCSI adapters. Each MSA30 SB contained thirteen HP 15K RPM Ultra320 SCSI hard disks.