We currently have a virtual machine (Server 2008 R2 64bit w/ 32Gb Memory and 2 VCPU and 4 Cores per) running on our Cisco UCS (UCSB-B200-M3 ESXi 5.5.0) that we would like to have run our Blackboard transact services (card readers, door access, etc…). We aren’t passing the applications minimum random write tests as they are just a bit slow, 7.21 MB/s vs. the required 9.0 MB/sec. Our 15k disk pool (only used by this virtual machine) is located on a Hitachi Unified Storage 150 connected via a 4GB fabric. The drive that will host the database is setup as raid10 with 4 300GB 15k drives. The OS drive is setup as a raid1 with 2 300GB drives.
We initially setup the data stores and attached them like you would through VMware using the Paravirtual SCSI driver. We also tried with the LSI Logic SAS but there was not any noticeable difference. I deleted the data stores and mapped them as raw data and got up to 8.09 MB/s but still shy of the 9MB/s needed. I played around with memory and CPU configurations but it had no effect on the outcome. We did dry different allocation sizes on the disk but that didn’t make any difference either. I have attached the latest SQLIO results if that helps at all.
Is there anything else we can try to exceed the minimum specs? Perhaps we are just overlooking something simple.
If more information is needed, please let me know and Thank You for any advice you can give.