Increasing the Transfer Rate?

Nintendork asks: "I recently started a new job as a resident computer geek and am analyzing the performance of our SQL server. I did quite a bit of research and would like an opinion from the Slashdot community on my proposed solution for increasing the STR (Sustained Transfer Rate) from the server to the workstations. The server (Compaq ProLiant ML530) has 16 10,000 RPM drives with an average STR of ~43MB/sec. per drive. 14 are used for two RAID 5 logical drives (7 physical drives per logical). The remaining 2 drives are backup drives in case one fails. Currently, they're all connected to a Compaq fibre RA4000 adapter. It runs at 100MB/sec. from what I could find in a jungle of fibre information. Reasoning tells me I have a huge bottleneck at the fibre adapter and the 100baseT NIC. I should also mention that the server has 2 PCI buses. One runs at 64-bit and 66Mhz and has 2 PCI slots. My proposed setup would be to back up all the data and create a new array with a few hardware modifications. Take out the fibre adapter and use two, dual channel 64-bit 66Mhz ultra160 adapters on the two 64-bit 66Mhz PCI slots (4 drives per channel). Take out the 100baseT NIC and start a gigabit backbone." Would this significantly increase performance? Read on, if you to check out the numbers on the new setup.

"From what I've learned thus far, the proposed setup would be a blazingly fast file server approaching ludicrous speed. Let me break it down. Data can be read from the drives at a STR of ~602MB/sec. (~43MB/sec. * 14 drives). Each Ultra160 channel has a STR of 132MB/sec. This provides a bearable bottleneck that reduces the overall STR to ~528MB/sec. (132MB/sec. * 4 channels). The 64-bit 66Mhz PCI bus has a STR of 528MB/sec., which is an exact match for the 4 ultra160 channels! From there, I assume the data goes out the NIC, which is on a gigabit backbone. This would provide a STR of ~528MB/sec. to the workstations. Unless I'm missing something such as a possible bottleneck between the PCI bus and the NIC, my reasoning makes gosh darned perfect sense!

Thanks in advance for any insight you all can provide on this issue."