Slow virtual machine storage when using HP Smart Array P410 with ESX 3.5

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When running virtual machines on local storage using a HP Smart Array P410 or P410i controller with battery backed write cache on ESX 3.5, you may experience these symptoms:

• Storage performance is slower compared to older generation Smart Array controllers
• Virtual machine performance is slower than with previous Smart Array controllers
• Local VMFS storage is not performing as expected
• SAN storage is performing as expected

Environment

VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded

Resolution

The HP Smart Array P410 and P410i controller is a 6G SAS based controller. In certain tests the performance is comparable to, for example, a Smart Array P800 controller (a 3G SAS based controller). However, the performance is degraded in other tests.

 

Note: All tests performed included the BBWC (Battery Backed Write Cache) installed and enabled on the P410(i).

 

HP and VMware recommend upgrading to ESX 4.0 or later.