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I have situation which is completely different, uses different hardware and disks, but the same effect as you: Write access to my RAID array is about 2mb/s, sequential reads 22mb/s, random reads about 11-12 mb/s.
I'm using SuSE 9.2 pro with a Compaq SmartArray 2P / 3200 SCSI RAID controller and a stack of 8 SCSI drives, 18 GB 10,000 RPM. I boot from a separate IDE drive. The raid array is set up as three ReiserFS filesystems each in its own logical volume.
I can't explain it.
Are you using the SA controller in a Compaq box? If not, there's your problem when writing to disk. Reads are generally fine, but writes are disasters in that config.
No Anders, I'm not using an SA controller, is that a serial ATA controller?? The other fellow is using SATA drives, I have SCSI drives (8 of them) on a compaq controller but not in a Compaq box.
Nah.. :) SA meaning Smart Array controller.. Either Smart Array 3200 or SMART-2 array controllers are included in my short form "SA". They have a BIOS feature that's tied to the Compaq system BIOS to make them work flawless. If you put those cards in non-Compaq computer they read fast as h*ll, but the writing is terrifying slow. Anders.