Useful tools - h2bench
The h2benchw tool is for anyone interested in getting accurate
data for read and write performance across the surface area of an
individual disk. The tool requires the disk to be empty and unpartitioned.
It works with all types of drive interfaces, such as SATA, SCSI and
Fibre Channel. h2benchw is available from ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/h2benchw.zip
in English, Dutch and German.
The h2benchw tool can be particularly useful when mapping the "cliff"
on SATA disks, determining the optimum settings when restricting
the reported capacity of drives inside a SATA raid enclosure.
If unsure about
using the h2benchw, please refer to the user guide and help section
of the tool before using it.
Useful tools
- Hitachi
Feature Tool
Once a drive's performance envelope has been mapped using h2benchw,
a determination about the actual usable space of the drive can be
made. In order to hide the slower part of the drive from the end
user, most SATA drives can be configured to report a smaller size
than their actual physical size to the controller. A tool to limit
the reported disk size in hardware on the SATA drive is the Hitachi
Feature Tool. It is available from http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/ftool_ver194.exe.
In some cases,
the SATA raid controller will provide similar functionality and
allow for restricting the amount of disk area used on each drive
for the RAID array. These measures ensure that the available and
usable space to the end user lies entirely inside the fast/best
part of the array's performance envelope.
.............................................................................................................
Should you be unsure about the requirements or procedures,
or require advice, email apl@assimilateinc.com
|
