I'm the guy that likes to abuse my RAID arrays, described here and here. So this success with CacheCade Pro 2.0 is that much sweeter, even if it took about a year and a half to fully bake.
This vZilla project, which inspired me to start this web site on June 1 2011 in the first place, was in jeopardy of having a failed storage strategy. Without CCPro2 for SSD caching of my 5.6TB RAID5 array, I could obtain similar speeds at a much lower price than my LSI 9265-8i. But victory at last achieved last night, with initial tests indicating a favorable outcome.
CacheCade Pro 2.0 Cache Pool Mirror Hot Data Cold Data Figure 1 CacheCade Pro 2.0 software intelligently copies hot data to low latency, redundant SSD cache. Figure 2 Typical database application IO profile shows read and write activity concentrated in specific disk volume regions. MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 Unlimited. 0egp8, Apr 9, 2013. Mobilenvidia Moderator. Cachecade Pro 2 0 Keygen Torrent. Key Keygen Full Version Cracked Free Download. LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 with FastPath and physical key is now at Amazon here. May 2, 2012 - LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 with. MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 Unlimited. 0egp8, Apr 9, 2013. Mobilenvidia Moderator. Cachecade Pro 2 0 Keygen Torrent. Key Keygen Full Version Cracked Free Download. LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 with FastPath and physical key is now at Amazon here. May 2, 2012 - LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 with. Lsi Cachecade Keygen Crack. LSI (LSI00292) RAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 Software physical key for 9260/9280 Series. Pathfinder 6 5 Keygen. Aug 13, 2011 - LSI MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 Review – Total Storage. Product code on your tiny hardware key and controller serial number as.
Stay with me here to the end of this saga, where you'll see some initial benchmark tests, and rather impressive results!
Timeline, June 2011 to January 2013:
I've had the LSI 9265-8i RAID controller since the summer of 2011, with the promise of having excellent read and write speeds for my RAID5 array, explained here:
Good RAID Controllers with SSD caching and ESX support
TinkerTry.com/goodraidcontrollerswithssdcachingandesxsupport
Aug 13, 2011 07:14 pm
I soon decided to return my 9260-8i, going instead with the RAID5 CacheCade Pro 2.0 capable 9265-8i. Why? Only that model supported RAID5 read+write caching:
Z68 Sandybridge Motherboard VT-d Test Matrix: Which Mobo/CPU combo works with VMware ESXi 4.1U1 VMDirectPath feature?
TinkerTry.com/vmdirectpath
Jul 14, 2011 06:56 pm
By December, I had fully baked my storage strategy, and published it at:
The reasoning behind vZilla’s storage configuration
TinkerTry.com/vzillastoragereasoning
Dec 05, 2011 09:27 pm
Basically, I'd format the entire internal RAID5 array as one big 5.6TB VMFS storage device in ESXi 5. I'd then put my VMs on that array, which would hopefully perform quite well, especially upon performing procedures the 2nd and 3rd time (for caching effects to start helping).
By May, the prequisite hardware key and firmware to support CacheCade Pro 2.0 finally arrive:
LSI CacheCade Pro 2.0 / FastPath FAQ has arrived, and so have the 30 day trial keys!
TinkerTry.com/lsi-cachecade-pro-2-0-faq
May 02, 2012 10:59 pm
But then I had a nasty scrape with losing my array with an early firmware, and a entirely unsupported OCZ Vertex 4 (so this 'loss' was entirely my own fault):
Playing with LSI CacheCade Pro 2.0: The OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD (VTX4-25SAT3-256G) (Caution!)
TinkerTry.com/oczvertex4
May 03, 2012 01:33 am
The actual RAID array drop can be seen in this newly published video, which is just a first-stab attempt at establishing whether my read and write speeds are now in the right ball-park:
Only non-critical VMs that were left running at the time of the failure were affected, all other data on the array was unaffected by this incident. I also need to emphasize that the OCZ Vertex is still not on the CC Pro SSD compatibility list from Dec 2012 found on the 9265-8i Resources tab, with the details on pages 26 to 29:
Interoperability Report for MegaRAID Value and Feature 6Gb-s SAS Controllers, Dec 13 2013
Worse yet, I had a problem with later firmwares and tests with my Samsung 830 256GB SSD. I couldn't enable CacheCade Pro 2.0 for reads and writes. Which defeated the whole purpose of having this card. The exact issue can be seen in this video:
So, working with LSI Technical Support for months (and sharing the above videos with LSI), we decided to try to get to the bottom of why I couldn't enable read and write caching on my particular configuration by simply replacing my LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 hardware key:
I removed the old key, which made my array Foreign, and not import-able. In other words, I should have done the wise thing, which would have been to disable CacheCade Pro 2.0 in the MegaRAID UI before shipping it in for exchange, oops!
A week later, LSI had mercy on me, and kindly overnighted the new LSI00290. Thank you Sean and Jason! It arrived on January 4th, 2013. I then let it warm up to room temp, installed it, and tada, complete success, seen in the video below:
Here's the before (no CacheCade) and after (CacheCade Pro 2.0 enabled) results, using ATTO Disk Benchmark with 2GB setting, and a thick provisioned 750GB C: drive residing on this ESXi 5 VMFS formatted RAID5 array:
Drum roll please, here's the results on the 1st run (seen in the video) after enabling CacheCade Pro 2.0 in my MegaRAID VM:
'Real' benchmark tips here:
LSI MegaRAID Controller Benchmark Tips
www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Direct%20Assets/LSI/Benchmark_Tips.pdf
November 6, 2012
which I'm frankly not as interested in as real-world use and home-brew tests I'll be doing that are meaningful to me in my configuration. But I do take from it that I should look at the effects of moving the queue depth higher, with results seen below.
Time will tell if the Samsung 256GB PM830 SSD works out. I'm using the latest firmware, which is still CXM03B1Q Release Date: 2012-01-1 from here:
www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7PC256N/AM
but it isn't an exact match for the model listed on page 28 of the Interoperability Report:
Samsung 256GB PM830, MZ7PC256HAFU-000DA with firmware 1W1Q
The Intel and other well-known-brand models they do list tend to be enterprise centric (pricey), naturally. It's not 'normal' for home-build virtualization enthusiasts to use these for single-user storage labs.
But the interoperability list has grown considerably since last summer, back when I met a LSI engineer at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco, discussing this whole matter at length.
Let's hope gems like the beloved Samsung 840 Pro show up soon! Meanwhile, I may just wind up leaving my array as is, and move on to more important projects, like rebuilding my Windows Server 2012 Essentials system for daily PC backups, now that I know my array and storage strategy seems to be performing well, and is stable, so far..
Lessons learned:
1) Thin Provisioning
Thin provisioning on the RAID5 array versus Thick Provisioning seemed to have no effect on performance of ATTO Disk Benchmark, at all.
Thin provisioned results look the same as thick provisioned results (NTFS VM on the same RAID5 array looks largely like the thick provisioned first test seen above), and you'll also note that multiple runs ran the same each time, so results were consistent, seen here:
2) 2GB dataset required for ATTO Disk Benchmark on caching RAID controllers
The default 256MB fits in the 1GB controller cache, greatly/artificially inflating benchmark results:
3) moving from default Queue Dept of 4 to recommended 10 gives a considerable boost to the 16K and under results
This hints that a heavy, mixed workload of a lot of VMs at once doing small IOs is where this controller will really shine, given it's the speed at 4K that really matters:
Additional references:
LSI MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 Software Evaluation, By Boston Limited
LSI 9265-8i & VMware ESXi (health monitoring, MegaRAID UI in a VM, & CacheCade 2.0)
Update Jan. 06, 2013:
Looking backing, if I were buying a caching RAID controller today, things would likely only change a little.
Adaptec MaxCache 3.0 has come along to compete with LSI CacheCade 2.0 Pro, for example.
One model, the Adaptec 7805Q at around $1100:
www.adaptec.com/en-us/products/series/7q
has this read and write caching, and supercapacitor based Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection.
Such supercapacitor protection is on the LSI 9286CV-8eCC as well, called MegaRAID CacheVault Flash Cache Protection. But that unit still has the same performance as my 9265-8i, using the same LSISAS2208 Dual- core 6Gb/s ROC - x2 800MHz PowerPC Processors. The bus speed is boosted, with with my modest needs and overall throughput, I really doubt I'd notice any difference in my speeds.
In the end, it appears I'm not missing out on some amazing speed boost at a lower price. So no regrets. And if I were starting all over today, I'd likely evaluate the Adaptec 7805Q against the 9286CV-8eCC first hand, using a bunch of benchmarks and real-world usage to determine my actual speeds seen during day-to-day home lab usage.
I'll be watching:
Anyone have any thoughts on the newer Adaptec RAID adapters?
forums.servethehome.com/showthread.php?1131-Anyone-have-any-thoughts-on-the-newer-Adaptec-RAID-adapters
I don't have many spindles, but I'm burning more watts for my five 1.5TB drives than I'd like, so I find this interesting:
blog.insanegenius.com/category/power
Eventide h3000 factory crack. See also the related graphic from https://tinkertry.com/vzillastoragereasoning
LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 with FastPath and physical key is now at Amazon here.
You too can give can CacheCade Pro 2.0 / FastPath a 30 day trial right now, by following these 3 steps:
a) buy SSD(s), attach to available SATA connection(s) on your LSI RAID adapter (see item #4 below)
b) update to the latest MSM (MegaRAID Storage Manager), see TinkerTry.com/msminstallonwindows (or use an alternative like WebBIOS or MegaCLI)
c) update to the latest CacheCade Pro 2.0 firmware 23.4.1-0028 tinkertry.com/lsi-9265-8i-firmware-update using MSM (or use an alternative like WebBIOS or MegaCLI)
d) enter the 30 day CacheCade Pro 2.0 trial keys available here,
16629, LSI MegaRAID Advanced Software trial keys
http://mycusthelp.info/LSI/_cs/AnswerPrint.aspx?sSessionID=&aid=8286
for my 9265-8i, it's JEFU1LSNSKC8KG4BSSGE7KF6MTVNBLN9UPDUVGRZ
Here's the video, in case you don't believe me:
I've worked directly with a contact in LSI Sales and another two in LSI Support, and have pulled together this CacheCade related Q&A/FAQ, with answers in red below.
As always, your honest feedback is always appreciated, so I can continue to improve the accuracy of the information I provide, and focus on the sorts of articles you enjoy!
” accurate?
Specifically, the most important part of this question is, for a 9265-8i owner like me, who already has the latest CacheCade Pro firmware 23.4.1-0028, is LSI00293 still the part # I’m waiting for?
Last I heard, it’s the only software license key that bundles both FastPath and CCPro 2.0, but now I see the store listing updated to include the 9265 here, for the LSI00290:
http://store.lsi.com/store.cfm/Advanced_Software_Options/Advanced_Software_Options/LSI00290/
so do I go ahead and order the LSI00290?
See also SPECIFICATIONS tab here:
http://www.lsi.com/channel/products/storagesw/Pages/MegaRAIDCacheCadeSoftware2-0.aspx
which currently says:
Software License Ordering PN LSI00293 - Compatible with MR SAS 9260/9261/9265/9266/9280/9285 series
Physical Key Ordering PN
LSI00292 - Compatible with MR SAS 9260 (-4i, -8i, -16i, CV-4i, CV-8i), 9280 (-4i4e, -16i4e, -24i4e)
LSI00290 - Compatible with MR SAS 9265-8i, 9266 (-4i, -8i), 9285 (-8e, CV-8e)
'The part number for the hardware key is actually LSI00290. Which, I think, was the same part number for the 1.0 keys in the past. http://store.lsi.com/store.cfm/Advanced_Software_Options/Advanced_Software_Options/LSI00290/
It’s confusing, I am unsure as to why we would have dropped LSI00293 in lieu of LSI00290. In fact, if you go to the main product page for advanced software, LSI00293 has disappeared… http://store.lsi.com/store.cfm/Advanced_Software_Options'
(Paraphrased):
So in short, yes, go ahead and order LSI00290, it is the correct part # for the 9265-8i, and includes FastPath.
2) Will there be any upgrade pricing for CacheCade 1.0 users?
Luger serial number suffix. I’m hearing site visitors say that there no upgrade pricing, such as:
https://tinkertry.com/whylsi9265-8i/#comment-507893555
(Verbal/paraphrased): No, there is no upgrade from CacheCade 1.0. Proposal pengadaan alat musik gamelan.
?
Perhaps ordering that way would allow for possible future upgrade elibility?
(Verbal/paraphrased): No (see also item #2 above).
4) SSD recommendations?
Last I looked, I could not find any list of tested or recommended CacheCade Pro 2.0 compatible SSDs. LSI’s site refers to such a list, but the link doesn’t take you to any such list.
Here’s the article:
http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Advanced%20Software/Advanced%20Software%20Common%20Files/MR_CacheCade_FAQ_043010.pdf
which states:
Will CacheCade software work with any size or model of SSD drive?
Please visit www.lsi.com/channel/support/marketing_resources for a complete list of tested SSDs.
This is fine, if indeed ANY SSD will work, a good thing really. But folks still wonder if there is a recommended, known-good, tested choice, just to avoid possible headaches down the road.
For example,
a) There’s the type of SATA3 (6Gbps) SSD to choose, say:
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB
$170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791
uses a new Indilinx controller (that is really Marvell), new kid on the block and most promising for raw speed:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/12/ocz-indilinx-controller-built-by-marvell/
Then there’s the stable veteran out since last year, but winning review after review:
Samsung 830 128GB
$135.99 (after 15 off promo code)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163
b) Then there’s the quantity to choose:
What makes for more raw speed?
Am I better off configuring CacheCade Pro 2.0 on 2 64GB SSDs or 1 128GB SSD, assuming all other specifications are equivalent?
Paraphrased by one guy in support, this is not official LSI information, or flame bait!
Intel 510 or 520 SSDs work, perhaps avoid Crucial M4 for now, don't know about the Samsung or OCZ drives
(Direct quote/in writing):
'I am going to fall back on recommending Intel 510s or 520s. Stay away from Crucial M4s. Vertex 3’s work, but the testing department hasn’t gone through vertex 4s yet. I don’t see why they wouldn’t work, but to be on the safe side..
You’ll get greater performance using two smaller SSDs striped together than with a single, larger capacity SSD. But if you mirror your two smaller SSDs and compare it to using 1 SSD, I don’t think the performance difference will be as noticeable.'
Cachecade Pro 2.0 Keygen Torrent
5) Will TRIM on the CCPro Cache SSD be possible someday?
Users are concerned about the speed of the cache degrading over time, with no native TRIM support
Cachecade Pro 2.0 Keygen Free
(Direct quote/in writing):
'I don’t think LSI has plans to implement TRIM. They do garbage collection called SSD Guard but it isn’t the same and you cannot get the same level of granularity that one can with TRIM.
6) Will a fix for installing MSM be made soon?
See ticket # P00042586 for details, avoiding having to go through some pretty unusual steps https://tinkertry.com/msminstallonwindows just to install the latest 11.08.03.0300
a) activate then login as administrator
b) disable UAC on Win 7
would be very much desired
(Direct quote/in writing):
04/13/2012 9:05 am
Hello Paul,
I can not recommend disabling UAC, as enabling the built-in administrator works as intended. I will look into moving the install location, especially just for the Java build.
Thank you for contacting LSI technical support! Please, don’t hesitate to contact us for further assistance.
Kindest Regards,
Technical Support Engineer
RAID Storage Division
LSI Corporation
7) Does the LSI 9260-4i support RAID5 read and write caching using SSDs in CCPro 2.0?
Originally, when we talked 3Q2011, it seemed only the 9265 (dual core) adapters would handle this, curious if you can confirm.
FYI, here’s some spectacular RAID10 results of a 9260-4i user with CCPro 2.0 fyi:
http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3791-playing-with-cachecade-20
(Direct quote/in writing):
Cachecade Pro 2.0 Keygen 1
You can only create CacheCade volumes of the following RAID levels: RAID 0, RAID 1, and (I believe) RAID 10/1E but as far as your data volumes go, they can be any RAID level.'