Re: [gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[R0b0t1]

On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 4:23 PM, taii...@gmx.com  wrote:
> I am wondering if anyone has tried this, apparently several LSI controllers
> support portioning out drives to VF's so the guest sees a controller with
> those drives attached to it.
>
> What was your experience like? and what controllers did you use?
>
>
> - Thanks
>

Why bother with a raid controller? Doing the processing required of
RAID takes essentially no processing power. You also don't need to
worry about the hardware failing and leaving your disks potentially
useless.

I do what you do by using a LVM volume group among a couple of SSDs.
Logical volumes can be any size up to the size of the entire
collection. There is additional functionality in LVM that you may be
interested in.

I have interacted with one (the process of turning it off). The menu
is usable but not as good as a simple CLI interface. It seems to mimic
the most basic functionality of LVM - you create groupings of physical
disks and then split them into logical disks. I would highly recommend
reading about LVM to know what else is possible that these controllers
likely do not or can not implement.

R0b0t1.

Re: [gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[J. Roeleveld]

On Monday, July 3, 2017 8:30:08 AM CEST taii...@gmx.com wrote:
> On 07/03/2017 12:24 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote:
> > On July 2, 2017 7:36:02 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"  
wrote:
> >> On 07/02/2017 02:51 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote:
> >>> On July 1, 2017 11:23:06 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"

> >> VM with quality performance.
> >> It'll always be faster than an emulated disk.
> > 
> > Never noticed any performance issues. Using Xen and raw disk format to the
> > VMs.
> http://semiaccurate.com/2009/09/30/lsi-virtualizes-storage-hardware/

I am missing how to accessed the disks here in both options.
The difference in performance is far more then I ever saw, even with older 
hardware.
With that difference, it seems their KVM configuration is rubbish.

> For me I have 3/4 the native copy speed, and the I/O for example
> extracting a zip is terrible.

I never noticed any real difference, even when the host managed the HBA.
How do you configure your VMs and which technology do you use?

> >>> Either the VM needs a fraction of a single disk. Or it needs multiple
> >> 
> >> disks.
> >> 
> >>> For the latter case, I prefer to pass an entire HBA.
> >> 
> >> Which one do you have and does yours support FLR?
> > 
> > Using a Supermicro card based on a LSI3008 chipset and dual expander
> > backplane. I can always add a second HBA of I need more bandwidth.
> > 
> > What is FLR? Googling that gives me a lot of non IT related results.
> 
> Function level reset, it is required to be able to assign devices to
> VM's without annoyance.

Passing to VM works flawlessly with this card. Didn't have any issues with 
setting it all up.

> The 3K series supports SR-IOV so you probably have it.
> Could you run # lspci -vv?

Results from the VM attached.
I don't see any mention of SR-IOV in there.

My network-card does have this, but unless I can have the card do the bonding 
and vlans, I see no use for it there either.

--
Joost# lspci -vv
00:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS3008 
PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Super Micro Computer Inc SAS3008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx+
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- SERR- 
Capabilities: [190 v1] #16
Capabilities: [148 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
ARICap: MFVC- ACS-, Next Function: 0
ARICtl: MFVC- ACS-, Function Group: 0
Kernel driver in use: mpt3sas
Kernel modules: mpt3sas

Re: [gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[taii...@gmx.com]

On 07/03/2017 12:24 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote:


On July 2, 2017 7:36:02 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"  wrote:

On 07/02/2017 02:51 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote:


On July 1, 2017 11:23:06 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"

 wrote:

I am wondering if anyone has tried this, apparently several LSI
controllers support portioning out drives to VF's so the guest sees

a

controller with those drives attached to it.

What was your experience like? and what controllers did you use?


- Thanks

I am wondering when I would want this?

So you only need one HBA/RAID card per system if you want more than one

VM with quality performance.
It'll always be faster than an emulated disk.

Never noticed any performance issues. Using Xen and raw disk format to the VMs.

http://semiaccurate.com/2009/09/30/lsi-virtualizes-storage-hardware/
For me I have 3/4 the native copy speed, and the I/O for example 
extracting a zip is terrible.



Either the VM needs a fraction of a single disk. Or it needs multiple

disks.

For the latter case, I prefer to pass an entire HBA.

Which one do you have and does yours support FLR?

Using a Supermicro card based on a LSI3008 chipset and dual expander backplane.
I can always add a second HBA of I need more bandwidth.

What is FLR? Googling that gives me a lot of non IT related results.
Function level reset, it is required to be able to assign devices to 
VM's without annoyance.

The 3K series supports SR-IOV so you probably have it.

Could you run # lspci -vv?
Thank you

Re: [gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[J. Roeleveld]

On July 2, 2017 7:36:02 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"  wrote:
>On 07/02/2017 02:51 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote:
>
>> On July 1, 2017 11:23:06 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"
> wrote:
>>> I am wondering if anyone has tried this, apparently several LSI
>>> controllers support portioning out drives to VF's so the guest sees
>a
>>> controller with those drives attached to it.
>>>
>>> What was your experience like? and what controllers did you use?
>>>
>>>
>>> - Thanks
>> I am wondering when I would want this?
>So you only need one HBA/RAID card per system if you want more than one
>
>VM with quality performance.
>It'll always be faster than an emulated disk.

Never noticed any performance issues. Using Xen and raw disk format to the VMs.

>> Either the VM needs a fraction of a single disk. Or it needs multiple
>disks.
>>
>> For the latter case, I prefer to pass an entire HBA.
>Which one do you have and does yours support FLR?

Using a Supermicro card based on a LSI3008 chipset and dual expander backplane.
I can always add a second HBA of I need more bandwidth.

What is FLR? Googling that gives me a lot of non IT related results.

--
Joost


-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Re: [gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[taii...@gmx.com]

On 07/02/2017 02:51 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote:


On July 1, 2017 11:23:06 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"  
wrote:

I am wondering if anyone has tried this, apparently several LSI
controllers support portioning out drives to VF's so the guest sees a
controller with those drives attached to it.

What was your experience like? and what controllers did you use?


- Thanks

I am wondering when I would want this?
So you only need one HBA/RAID card per system if you want more than one 
VM with quality performance.

It'll always be faster than an emulated disk.

Either the VM needs a fraction of a single disk. Or it needs multiple disks.

For the latter case, I prefer to pass an entire HBA.

Which one do you have and does yours support FLR?

Re: [gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[J. Roeleveld]

On July 1, 2017 11:23:06 PM GMT+02:00, "taii...@gmx.com"  
wrote:
>I am wondering if anyone has tried this, apparently several LSI 
>controllers support portioning out drives to VF's so the guest sees a 
>controller with those drives attached to it.
>
>What was your experience like? and what controllers did you use?
>
>
>- Thanks

I am wondering when I would want this?

Either the VM needs a fraction of a single disk. Or it needs multiple disks.

For the latter case, I prefer to pass an entire HBA.

--
Joost
-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[gentoo-user] SR-IOV for RAID/HBA's? anyone tried it?

[taii...@gmx.com]

I am wondering if anyone has tried this, apparently several LSI 
controllers support portioning out drives to VF's so the guest sees a 
controller with those drives attached to it.


What was your experience like? and what controllers did you use?


- Thanks