propergol Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Hi, I was wondering if some of you have dual link working between M1015 and Intel expander RES2SV240? It looks like Ethernet link aggregation but for SAS. RES2SV240 supports it but I don't know for the M1015 or M1115. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 I have both cards, but I'm not using it in a dual link configuration. I could test it out, but it's not exactly in an easy spot to get at. However, unless I'm mistaken, each port/cable is 4x 6gbps links. That's enough to run 24 drives at ~120MB/s without any issues. And that's assuming there isn't some sort of link aggregation for the single connection (as it is 4 lanes per connector). Unless you're chaining additional expanders off this card, I'm not sure it would be necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 propergol Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 Thanks. Don't waste time checking : I will receive the expander in the next days and so I will test it. You are probably right however, cabling from the expander to HDs and SSDs could do a nicer job in my small case. I will check what is the best option after receiving the expander. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Please, definitely do check, and let me know what you find. Also, a good way to max out the bus speed... use StableBit Scanner's Burst test option (right click on a drive). This runs the drive a higher speed than the disk is capable, but maxes out the bus. It's great for testing for connectivity issues, but doing this on multiple drives may be a good way to test the controller link. And Expander Cards make for excellent cable management. propergol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 propergol Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 While I was experimenting with Scanner Burst test, I did noticed some strange behavior with 2 SSDs pluged into M1115 : reported burst speed is no more than 305MB/s and 296MB/s So I jumped on my benchmark directory and made some RW speed test on both SSDs : Results are much higher than Scanner Burst test. Both SSDs score virtualy the same : On a third SSD, that is system SSD and plugged into Intel mobo port, the burst speed reported by Scanner is higher : 500MB/s SSDs on M1115 are reported as SATA rev 3.1, SSD on Intel is reported as SATA rev 3.0 Burst test on HD RED 4To plugged onto M1115 = 466MB/s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Well, that's odd, and may be firmware/interaction bug. It also may be because it's a sustained test, and not just a short test. Who knows. I'll ask Alex (the developer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 propergol Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 just a note this is without expander, since I haven't received it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Well, I meant for the drive and the controller card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 propergol Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 Some could be interested : this guy has some Intel expander @ €99, free shiping to France from Irland so I think free shipping to Europe. I guess I should have wait a litle more. http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Intel-RES2SV240-24-port-6-Gb-s-SATA-SAS-RAID-Expander-Card-/111791366958?hash=item1a0748e32e Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Ebay is weird.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 p3x-749 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 I have both cards, but I'm not using it in a dual link configuration. I could test it out, but it's not exactly in an easy spot to get at. However, unless I'm mistaken, each port/cable is 4x 6gbps links. That's enough to run 24 drives at ~120MB/s without any issues. And that's assuming there isn't some sort of link aggregation for the single connection (as it is 4 lanes per connector). Unless you're chaining additional expanders off this card, I'm not sure it would be necessary. +1 IMHO dual-Link is mainly for creating redundant paths, not link aggregation. I did run a RES2CV240 with a M1015 (flashed to HBA, 9211-8i)) and connected as dual link ...it works, but there is no benefit is speed when using spinning disks, as Drashna already pointed out the reasons....I did not have the resources to test with SSDs at that time. The dual-link config would be to run two HBAs for redundancy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 propergol Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 I did some tests with SSD and it doesnt help with "slow" queue read/write. I did have nearly the same results with one or 2 links. SSDs plugged into Intel's SATA 3 ports always give better results than SSD plugged onto M1115 or M1015 or to the expander : SSD on expander : On Intel's motherboard port : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I did some tests with SSD and it doesnt help with "slow" queue read/write. I did have nearly the same results with one or 2 links. SSDs plugged into Intel's SATA 3 ports always give better results than SSD plugged onto M1115 or M1015 or to the expander : So, basically no difference. Do you have multiple SSDs? If so, ... well, to properly test... you'd need 7+ that can run at about 500MB/s (for the sequential). 6 and change to saturate one connection, and then a seventh or more to exceed. If you have that many and can test them all at the same time (running a surface scan or chkdsk or a full format), that would be the real test. (otherwise, it's closer to 30+ HDDS). propergol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 propergol Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 Sorry, I have "only" 4 SSDs I was just curious if dual link would increase single SSD read/write but it doesn't. Christopher (Drashna) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Christopher (Drashna) Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Only. (I'm looking forward to 3.5" form factor SSDs with 10+TBs ) That said, I'm not surprised. For the most part, unless you have a lot of SSDs on the controller, it shouldn't make a difference either way. The single cable is enough to handle ... well, 6 without bottlenecking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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propergol
Hi,
I was wondering if some of you have dual link working between M1015 and Intel expander RES2SV240?
It looks like Ethernet link aggregation but for SAS. RES2SV240 supports it but I don't know for the M1015 or M1115.
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