Slow SCSI2SD V6 on an Indigo 4K (and diskperf errors)

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Hi,

I'm trying to work out why my Indigo 4K "feels" so slow and thought I start with running diskperf as I'm using a SCSI2SD V6. Diskperf runs but I get lots of pread/pwrite errors. Are those expected? Also, throughput looks rather low. Should I try a SCA SCSI HDD + adapter instead?

Regards
Christoph


IRIS 5# diskperf -W -D -r 4k -m 4m testfile
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Disk Performance Test Results Generated By Diskperf V1.2
#
# Test name : Unspecified
# Test date : Fri Jan 27 21:20:35 1995
# Test machine : IRIX IRIS 6.5 10070055 IP20
# Test type : XFS data subvolume
# Test path : testfile
# Request sizes : min=4096 max=4194304
# Parameters : direct=1 time=10 scale=1.000 delay=0.000
# XFS file size : 0 bytes
#---------------------------------------------------------
# req_size fwd_wt fwd_rd bwd_wt bwd_rd rnd_wt rnd_rd
# (bytes) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s)
#---------------------------------------------------------
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
4096 0.68 1.16 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
8192 1.29 1.73 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
16384 2.12 2.28 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
32768 2.71 2.79 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
65536 3.20 3.23 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
131072 3.46 3.49 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
262144 3.51 3.64 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
524288 3.60 3.58 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
1048576 3.66 3.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
2097152 3.67 3.62 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pwrite() : Invalid argument
pread() : Invalid argument
4194304 3.72 3.78 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
IRIS 6#

IRIS 6# hinv
CPU: MIPS R4000 Processor Chip Revision: 2.2
FPU: MIPS R4000 Floating Point Coprocessor Revision: 0.0
1 100 MHZ IP20 Processor
Main memory size: 96 Mbytes
Secondary unified instruction/data cache size: 1 Mbyte on Processor 0
Instruction cache size: 8 Kbytes
Data cache size: 8 Kbytes
Integral SCSI controller 0: Version WD33C93B, revision C
Disk drive: unit 1 on SCSI controller 0
On-board serial ports: 2
On-board bi-directional parallel port
Graphics board: GR2-XZ
Integral Ethernet: ec0, version 1
Iris Audio Processor: revision 10
IRIS 7#

IRIS 7# uname -a
IRIX IRIS 6.5 10070055 IP20
 
Hi!

SCSI2SD should run fine in this machine. I also use one in my Iris Indigo.

This also looks suspicious: "# XFS file size : 0 bytes"

I don't remember if scsi2sd writes a log file somewhere to the SD card... probably not. ZuluSCSI does, and I switched to zulu for all my other machines, which is way more convenient.

maybe check the scsi2sd settings again or post here for comparison?
 
Hi,

Worked a few things out. The "# XFS file size : 0 bytes" and the pwrite/pread errors only occur on the first run. Afterwards, with the test file created, there are no further errors.

I have also tried to turn on the SCSI 2 support on the SCSI2SD V6 but this has changed little.

IRIS 13# diskperf -W -D -r 4k -m 4m testfile
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Disk Performance Test Results Generated By Diskperf V1.2
#
# Test name : Unspecified
# Test date : Sat Jan 28 21:44:02 1995
# Test machine : IRIX IRIS 6.5 10070055 IP20
# Test type : XFS data subvolume
# Test path : testfile
# Request sizes : min=4096 max=4194304
# Parameters : direct=1 time=10 scale=1.000 delay=0.000
# XFS file size : 37748736 bytes
#---------------------------------------------------------
# req_size fwd_wt fwd_rd bwd_wt bwd_rd rnd_wt rnd_rd
# (bytes) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s)
#---------------------------------------------------------
4096 1.29 1.90 1.31 1.89 1.34 1.88
8192 2.00 2.51 2.13 2.53 2.00 2.46
16384 2.81 3.02 2.92 3.04 2.79 3.00
32768 3.23 3.20 3.24 3.20 3.23 3.18
65536 3.53 3.47 3.53 3.48 3.53 3.47
131072 3.59 3.61 3.58 3.64 3.71 3.62
262144 3.58 3.72 3.56 3.72 3.53 3.72
524288 3.71 3.63 3.68 3.63 3.66 3.63
1048576 3.70 3.64 3.69 3.64 3.70 3.63
2097152 3.68 3.65 3.70 3.65 3.67 3.65
4194304 3.77 3.80 3.79 3.82 3.81 3.76
IRIS 14#

The SD card I'm using should have no issue with delivering way more than 10MB/s. Is the zuluSCSI (significantly) faster than the SCSI2SD V6?
 

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I actually had the same errors on the first run. Never noticed this before :-/

My results on Indigo2 R10k with ZuluSCSI

flexion@indigo2-purple ~ % diskperf -W -D -c 128M -t 5 /tmp/testfile
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Disk Performance Test Results Generated By Diskperf V1.2
#
# Test name : ZuluSCSI
# Test date : Fri Jan 31 04:53:22 2025
# Test machine : IRIX64 indigo2-purple 6.5 10070055 IP28
# Test type : XFS data subvolume
# Test path : /tmp/testfile
# Request sizes : min=16384 max=4194304
# Parameters : direct=1 time=5 scale=1.000 delay=0.000
# XFS file size : 134217728 bytes
#---------------------------------------------------------
# req_size fwd_wt fwd_rd bwd_wt bwd_rd rnd_wt rnd_rd
# (bytes) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s)
#---------------------------------------------------------
16384 2.00 4.97 2.51 5.25 2.22 4.42
32768 1.17 6.82 3.49 6.93 3.59 6.60
65536 3.78 7.65 4.56 7.74 3.96 7.29
131072 4.97 7.82 5.04 8.20 5.09 7.92
262144 5.96 8.27 5.89 8.42 5.94 8.35
524288 6.39 8.04 6.16 8.58 3.01 8.54
1048576 4.13 8.06 6.70 8.52 6.68 8.62
2097152 6.83 8.24 6.79 7.87 6.77 8.23
4194304 7.07 8.35 7.04 8.37 5.61 8.47
 
Last edited:
and results with another Indigo2 R10 but SCSI2SD


flexion@indigo2-purple2 ~ % diskperf -W -D -c 128M -t 5 /tmp/testfile
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Disk Performance Test Results Generated By Diskperf V1.2
#
# Test name : SCSI2SD
# Test date : Fri Jan 31 05:08:13 2025
# Test machine : IRIX64 indigo2-purple 6.5 10070055 IP28
# Test type : XFS data subvolume
# Test path : /tmp/testfile
# Request sizes : min=16384 max=4194304
# Parameters : direct=1 time=5 scale=1.000 delay=0.000
# XFS file size : 134217728 bytes
#---------------------------------------------------------
# req_size fwd_wt fwd_rd bwd_wt bwd_rd rnd_wt rnd_rd
# (bytes) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s) (MB/s)
#---------------------------------------------------------
16384 2.57 6.18 2.33 6.22 2.13 5.93
32768 3.14 7.28 3.31 7.30 3.22 7.09
65536 3.27 7.93 3.55 7.96 2.48 7.82
131072 3.54 8.35 3.61 8.34 2.98 8.30
262144 3.52 8.39 3.41 8.39 1.04 8.35
524288 2.17 8.15 3.38 8.34 2.19 8.33
1048576 3.24 8.34 3.48 8.37 2.70 8.35
2097152 2.75 8.34 3.37 8.35 3.59 8.34
4194304 2.35 8.48 3.13 8.45 3.58 8.51


Both SD cards are rather cheap with low specs
 

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