I have an Intel RS2WG160 RAID card and would like to upgrade this as I'm getting slow performance (can't write files > 8GB and writes have dropped down to 20MB/s or less)

[furyritchie]

Is there any way to plug a card in and have it load the configuration so I have no data-loss and don't have to rebuild the array? I have 11 drives.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Hello Matt, It might be a good idea to find out what is the root cause of the decrease on performance that you have experienced besides looking for an upgrade. Would it be possible for you to retrieve your server’s syslog by using Intel System Information Retrieval Utility? You would need to basically follow section 2.1 on the user guide on how to boot and extract logs from EFI. Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[furyritchie]

I've uploaded my log here: https://image-drop.com/Ghy2y.txt

I used the following command to grab the log: .\storcli64.exe /call show AliLog logfile=raidlog.txt

[furyritchie]

You can see the 'modified' part of the memory composition increasing as the file is transferred until finally it hits 0/bytes per second and then waits for the 'modified' memory to flush to disk. If I try robocopy with the /J (disable unbuffered I/O flag then the modified memory doesn't increase and the transfers actually complete albeit quite slowly).

I've recently replaced 3 disks that had errors appear - 2 were old and due for replacement anyway for vitality reasons but the other had 194 errors in a single patrol read so I took it out. But the write issue existed before and afterwards.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Hello Matt, Thank you very much for the logs and additional information provided. We are studying your case and will follow up with you as soon as possible. Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Hello Matt, Do you happen to know what is the id of the disks that were replaced? I see there were plenty of media errors in disks 16 and 13 by September and October of 2018 but currently similar errors are present in disk id 19. Do you keep backups of the data stored in this RAID array? Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[furyritchie]

I just swapped the following the other day one at a time:

Slot 2 (device 19)

Slot 3 (device 18)

Slot 9 (device 25)

Slot 0, Slot 1, Slot 3, Slot 4, Slot 5, Slot 6 (device 16) have been replaced over the last 2 years as the old disks were either faulty or becoming quite old and I didn't want to risk it.

I can't see a device 13 in the list.

Thank you for taking your time to look at this case it is very much appreciated.

[furyritchie]

I have an update.

I'm copying 4 x 10 GB files at 110MB/s whilst using the /J parameter with robocopy. Using robocopy without that parameter or using Windows directly results in it pumping the 'modified' part of memory up and it slows all the way down to 30MB/s or so until it fails with a 0x80070079 error "The semaphore timeout period has expired".

The average speed was 102 MB/s over 50.98 GB with the /J parameter.

I think this is an OS / driver problem. I'm running Windows Server 2019 Datacentre on this device.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Hello Matt, It sounds like it could somehow be related to how the OS handles the copying of large files. /J parameter of robocopy causes the OS to copy files in an "unbuffered" way which might be the reason why you don't see the peak in memory when used. Checking on Microsoft's forums it is suggested that you search for "troubleshooting" under Control Panel and then go to troubleshooting tab, click on view all and then on hardware and devices, then click next to run the hardware troubleshooter, all this of course coming from an outside (non Intel) source just as a reference. What file system type are you using? It would also be interesting to see how a similar copying process behaves in a different OS. Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[furyritchie]

Yes this card worked fine in Server 2012 R2 and Server 2016. I've only had this issue since Server 2019.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Matt, In your logs it appears that you are running driver version 6.713.05.00 which only offers support until Windows Server 2016. Not so long ago, version 7.708.12.00 was released which supports Windows Server 2019 also. You can get it from here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28570/RAID-MegaRAID-Windows-Drivers?product=48488 Could you try it and let us know how it goes? Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[furyritchie]

I get this message when trying to install them from that source. When I go to manually install them with "have disk" it does not list my controller in the list of available drivers. (But I notice the MR_Windows_DRV_v7.708.12.00_readme.txt file does list it as a supported device)

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Matt I will check to see how that error can be avoided and get back with you as soon as possible. Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Matt Would it be possible for you to share the screenshots of the steps you take when you attempt to install the newest driver manually? Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[furyritchie]

I can’t login at the moment so I have to e-mail a reply.

I right click on the card in device manager, hit update driver, browse

I chose next and it instantly says the card is already running the latest driver.

I try again but click “let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer” and see this:

This shows the driver I already have. If I click ‘have disk’ it will then list all the drivers inside the package – but none of them are my card.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Matt, I believe you tried to send a couple images but they came over as mailto links. When you have a chance, could you share those images maybe by using some cloud sharing service like google drive, dropbox, etc. and if you could also, send me a screenshot of the drivers inside the package you mentioned you are shown when you choose the "have disk" option. Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[furyritchie]

I've updated the previous response. Here is a rough list of the drivers provided in those files (I checked the *.inf files and there's no listing for my device either)

https://image-drop.com/190403_89214.jpg

They're just completely missing.

[furyritchie]

https://image-drop.com/190403_23216.png

Here's an extract of the megasas35.inf file from the win10_x64 folder. My device doesn't even appear even with the old drivers.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Matt, Thanks for the information. We will check on that and get back with you soon. Best regards, Franklin S. Intel Rack Scale Design Direct Support.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Matt, Coming back to your initial question of moving your setup to a new RAID card... configuration is hold within the drives metadata so another RAID controller should be able to pull that and all should be seen properly. There could also be the chance that a new RAID controller will see a previous configuration as a "Foreign Configuration", which in that case you should be able to view and import properly. Worst case scenario: Configuration not detected and/or Foreign cannot be imported, then you can wipe out the configuration, recreate it (same exact settings) and then NOT initializing the configuration when asked as this will erase the metadata making it unrecoverable. As far as drivers goes, Walnut Grove (RS2WG160) is an older RAID controller from and 2 generations behind the latest one. Not even Server 2016 was validated for it: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/motherboards/server/rs2sg244/sb/rs2wg160_rs2sg244_thol_v13.pdf Section, 3 shows supported OSes. There will be no official support or drivers from Intel to support this controller within Server 2019. That said, you can use a newer controller and the configuration can be imported or moved to it; however, several variables need to be contemplated before exchange. - RS2WG160 has MiniSAS connectors on it, newer controllers do not - Connectivity to a HSBP should also change - Compatibility with the board in use as well. Board might support the RS2WG160 but not a newer controller. For all these reasons, we cannot guarantee full compatibility of your current configuration and a new RAID controller. Best bet would be to have a full backup and be ready to create RAID from scratch and copy all information back to the new logical volume. Best regards, Franklin S. Intel Rack Scale Design Direct Support.

[Franklin_S_Intel]

Hello Matt, Do you need any additional assistance? If you have any additional questions or concerns we will be happy to assist you. Regards, Franklin S. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation