WHM UDMA Reporting

[tabernack]

I have 2 servers that are identical and in WHM under \'Server Information\' I get the following for my first server:

hda: 80418240 sectors (41174 MB) w/1916KiB Cache, CHS=5005/255/63, UDMA(66)
hdc: 80418240 sectors (41174 MB) w/1916KiB Cache, CHS=79780/16/63, UDMA(66)

And on my second server:

hda: 80418240 sectors (41174 MB) w/1916KiB Cache, CHS=5005/255/63, UDMA(66)
hdc: 80418240 sectors (41174 MB) w/1916KiB Cache, CHS=79780/16/63, UDMA(33)

I\'m just wondering why it says UDMA(33) for hdc on the second server. I checked with hdparm and I set that drive to UDMA66 using:

hdparm -d1 -X68

but it still reports as UDMA(33) in cpanel, AND the drive does seem to perform worse then the other drives:

root@maple [/scripts]# hdparm -tT /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.48 seconds = 86.49 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.25 seconds = 19.69 MB/sec

While the drive is identical as hda:

root@maple [/scripts]# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.16 seconds =110.34 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.61 seconds = 24.52 MB/sec

Which seems to perform much better. Is this a motherboard jumper setting or something that can be changed from the shell?

Thanks!

 

[moronhead]

It could be that UDMA 66 and 100 needs a different type of cable. Does your hdc has the same cable as hda?

 

[tabernack]

I\'m assuming the cables are UDMA 80pin cables but I don\'t know for sure because I didn\'t build it. I guess I could get the NOC to check it out.

 

[moronhead]

What info do you get with hdparm -i /dev/hdc? It should have a line such as: DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 *udma4.

 

[tabernack]

This is for hdc:

root@maple [/scripts]# hdparm -i /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:

Model=IC35L040AVER07-0, FwRev=ER4OA44A, SerialNo=SXPTXTB2926
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=40
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=1916kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=-66060037, LBA=yes, LBAsects=80418240
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5

And then hda:

root@maple [/scripts]# hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

Model=IC35L040AVER07-0, FwRev=ER4OA44A, SerialNo=SXYTXN13859
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=40
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=1916kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=-66060037, LBA=yes, LBAsects=80418240
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 *udma4 udma5

And hdc reports that even after attempting to set it to udma4:

root@maple [/scripts]# hdparm -d1 -X68 /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
setting xfermode to 68 (UltraDMA mode4)
using_dma = 1 (on)

 

[moronhead]

The asterisk for hdc is indicating that it is working in udma2 mode which is essentially UDMA 33. Could your system BIOS have been inadvertently set to UDMA 33 for the data channel that hdc is using? Unless it\'s the cable.

 

[tabernack]

That\'s what I\'m thinking. It\'s either the cable or a bios setting. I\'ll have to get the NOC to take a look at it.

 

[moronhead]

Good luck Can you let us know when you have it resolved?

 

[bdraco]

Some motherboards only support udma 33 .. which board are you using ?

 

[tabernack]

Hi Nick,

The board is using the SiS630 chipset which has dual channel ATA66 controllers. The main drive on the same server is running ATA66, it\'s just second drive, hdc.

I have the same chipset in another server and both drives are running ATA66.

So I\'m pretty sure the chipset supports it, so that\'s why I was leaning towards a bios setting or a ide cable. What do you think?

 

[tabernack]

Now it\'s starting to get even more strange. I don\'t know if these two things are related or not but now in WHM when I click on \'Server Information\' I don\'t get the normal system information. The \'Physical Drives\' and \'Memory Information\' show nothing:

Memory Information


System Information
Linux maple.vosn.net 2.4.2-2 #1 Sun Apr 8 20:41:30 EDT 2001 i686 unknown


Physical Drives

....

And when I click on \'Service Status\' it only shows the partitions and cpu load, no service status (exim, apache, bind, etc...)

Server Load 0.01 (1 cpu)
Memory Used 8.6 %
Swap 1 %
Disk /hda7 (/) 48 %
Disk /hda1 (/boot) 12 %
Disk /hda9 (/home) 1 %
Disk /hda5 (/usr) 41 %
Disk /hda6 (/var) 4 %
Disk /hdc1 (/backup) 1 %

 

[tabernack]

Ok, I restarted chkservd and that solved the \'Service Status\' problem, but not the \'Server Information\' problem. Why would that information just stop showing up. It was there earlier today.

 

[tabernack]

Hi Nick,

if you can tell me from where the \'Server Information\' is read from in WHM I might be able to figure out why it\'s not displaying certain information (such as memory information and physical drives).

 

[tabernack]

I tried updating cpanel and still have the same problem of information not displaying in WHM.

 

[moronhead]

Hi again,

You may want to change the speed for hdc with hdparm -d1 -X34 as at present that drive seems to be working in UDMA-33. Normally the drive should work off a DMA mode even without issuing hdparm if the bios is setup for that mode.

 

[tabernack]

Yeah, I put it back to UDMA33, but it\'s using the command:

hdparm -d1 -X66 /dev/hdc

X66 is for UDMA33 and X34 is for standard DMA. I don\'t think it makes a difference actually

Nick, any idea why WHM wouldn\'t show that missing info?

 

[moronhead]

[quote:d0df3388c4]X66 is for UDMA33 and X34 is for standard DMA.[/quote:d0df3388c4]Quite true.

I\'m sure you\'ve read the man page for hdparm. It does have a warning about the -X setting:

\"Use this with extreme caution!\"

 

[tabernack]

Yeah, I read the caution The caution is there to remind people to check their chipsets/drives to make sure that the hardware is compatible for what you want to do. I assumed since I checked all the hardware specs that it was ok. Everything else is fine on the server (30+ accounts running smoothly on it), just these couple things that dissapeared on me.

[Edited on 9/23/01 by tabernack]

 

[moronhead]

I assume you\'ve already tried rebooting the system without any hdparm settings (to see if the hd info in WHM returns)?

 

[tabernack]

That\'s what I\'m going to do next. I just want to wait till it\'s late enough. I\'ll keep you posted