I know it is possible to setup write cache when working with Hardware RAID. Is there anyway it can be done via the SVM for a software RAID5? I have a SunFire V480 connected to Fibre a5200 (yes - I know it's old, but very reliable) and have quite a large RAID5 on it that I would like to optimise.
There used to be a card available called a fast write cache PCI card, I think it was designed to provide a write cache for JBOD systems. This card was not supported with the SF V480. I don't think it's possible to create a fast write cache without hardware, the idea is an area of memory that is faster than the disks. Have you tried any filesystem tuning?
This server and storage unit is not included in current support contract.
SunFire V480, 8GB RAM, 4 x 750 cpu, 2 x FCAL
A5200 22 x 18GB Fibre disks. 4 x RAID 5 and 3 x mirror
Sybase 64bit 12.5.3
The database on the RAID 5 in question is not write intensive, as it is for a webserver and most content is cahced. The initail creation of the databases, however, took forever and that is a concern
Sorry I took so long to post back to this thread, I forgot about it and something I was going through today remind me about this thread. Can you tell me what release of Solaris you are running? I'm thinking that you may be able to increase your performance by adjusting the <i>bufhwm</i> kernel parameter. This method will take a few calculations to work out a suitable parameter for your application and I think it will be difficult to do this through a web forum, however I don't mind discussing it further in this thread.
