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November 16, 2007
Eight Channel, RAID 5, SATA PM Controller
A Review of the HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 Dual mini-SAS PCI-Express SATA PM Host Adapter
By Arthur Whalem
HighPoint Technologies Inc. is shipping the RocketRAID 2522 SATA RAID controller ($399). The dual mini-SAS interface provided by the RocketRAID 2522 can support external SATA direct connect or SATA port multiplier enclosures. Apple Mac Pro users can utilize Disk Utility to create RAID sets or utilize the HighPoint web based RAID management software to create RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations with the RocketRAID 2522. When configured with two external mini-SAS to eSATA data cables (model Ext-MS-1MES $54 each), the RocketRAID 2522 can support up to eight direct connect or thirty-two SATA PM configured external hard drives. The purpose of this review is to determine how the HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 will perform with an Apple Mac Pro.
System Requirements
Requires an empty PCI-Express slot.
Supports Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.
Supports up to 32 external SATA hard drives.
PCI-Express x8, compatible with x16 Interface.
SMTP support for email notification.
What's Included?
The HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 2522 dual external mini-SAS to PCIe RAID controller includes a PCI-Express host adapter, a printed manual and a CD with software drivers. Data cables are NOT included.
InstallPCI-Express also known as PCIe, communicates using 250MB per second data lanes. PCI-Express bandwidth is determined by the number of data lanes that can be supported. One lane, four lanes, eight lanes, or 16 lanes are some of the typical PCIe options available. The RocketRAID 2522 is an eight lane (8x) PCIe SATA host adapter that also functions well in a sixteen lane slot.
During this review the HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 was mounted in slot 4 of the Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz model. Mac Pro users can view how the PCIe slots are configured by launching the Apple "Expansion Slot Utility" application. It can be found within Mac OS X at Macintosh HD: System: Library: CoreServices: Expansion Slot Utility. This application will usually automatically launch when it detects that a card has been installed in a slot with fewer lanes than the hardware is capable of supporting.
The Mac Pro used in this review has PCI-Express Profile option #1 selected which provides slot 4 with eight lanes. The image below displays how the Expansion Slot Utility application looks in this configuration. The RocketRAID 2522 is identified as a x8 "unknown SCSI Bus Controller Card".
After the RocketRAID 2522 is installed, Macintosh users will want to download the latest driver available at the HighPoint web site. Mac OS X drivers are available on the included HighPoint CD. However, the latest driver available will usually be posted on the HighPoint web site. The RocketRAID 2522 Mac OS X driver is installed by launching the rr2522.mpkg application. This process will provide the proper drivers for the Mac Pro to communicate with the RocketRAID 2522. Version 1.1.0-103107 of the HighPoint Mac OS X driver was used during this AMUG review.
Once the RocketRAID 2522 driver is installed and the computer has been restarted, users can examine the Mac OS X system profiler data for the PCI card. As shown below, the RocketRAID 2522 shows up as a PCI to PCIe Bridge in slot 4. Two SCSI Bus Controllers are also shown which represent each min-SAS four channel port.
Web Interface
To access the HighPoint web based RAID management software the user will need to navigate to https://localhost:7402/ using a web browser. The user name is RAID and the default password is hpt.
Macintosh users will want to reset the password, disable the alarm and check "Enable auto rebuild" in the "Setting" menu. The new "Enable auto rebuild" option allows Macintosh users to easily hot swap hard drives. The "Setting" menu also allows the web manager port address to be altered and can be configured to send email reports to users concerning the status of the RAID volume.
RocketRAID 2522 users will also appreciate the new Storage Health Inspector (SHI) window. This feature displays all hard drive temperatures, serial numbers, health and SMART data in a single window. This is a very nice feature for monitoring large disk arrays.
FeaturesThe HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 utilizes dual Marvell 88SX6042 32-bit PCI to Serial ATA controller chips. The HighPoint RocketRAID 1742 also uses this same controller chip. The 88SX6042 is compliant with both SATA 1.0 and SATA II hard drives. It features Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) support. The RocketRAID 2522 is compatible with both SATA PM and direct connect SATA hard drive connections. The FIS-based port multiplier aware hardware provided with the RocketRAID 2522 allows it to support up to thirty-two hard drives when eight 5-bay SATA PM enclosures are connected. Using the direct connect method of one hard drive per channel supports up to eight external hard drives.
The HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations. The ability to combine RAID configurations with port multiplier enclosures is a unique feature. The RocketRAID 2522 also supports deep sleep, bad sector repair, automatic rebuilding of a degraded RAID set, hard disk health monitoring, staggered drive spin up, email notification of errors, displays SMART data through the HighPoint web application and provides SAF-TE intelligent enclosure management support via a JP45 connector. If you are interested in more details about how the HighPoint web manager works with the Macintosh, the users guide is available in PDF format on-line.The RocketRAID 2522 PCI-Express controller provides a full set of features for Apple Mac Pro users. The HighPoint web based RAID management tool is utilized to establish RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD hard disk configurations. In addition, the RocketRAID 2522 can be used with Disk Utility to setup individual hard drives or Mac OS X supported RAID configurations.
No Boot Capability
The HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 does not provide boot capability. Users that are looking for boot capability built into a high performance RAID controller should read the AMUG Areca ARC-1221x review. The Mac Pro bootable Areca ARC-1221x controller supports RAID levels 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10 or JBOD for maximum configuration flexibility. The fact that all of these configurations are bootable on a Mac Pro with the ARC1221EFI firmware installed is a very nice feature. In addition, Apple has installed native Areca drivers in Mac OS X 10.5. Plug and play is now available for Areca Leopard users.
Energy Usage
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 requires approximately 8.5 watts to operate while idle and installed in the Mac Pro 2.66 GHz model. This was determined by measuring the energy usage with and without the card installed while the computer was idle for at least 10 minutes. The difference between the two readings is 8.5 watts.
PerformanceThe HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 2522 was tested in slot 4 of an Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz running Mac OS X 10.4.10 and 10.5. The HighPoint web manager version 1.6.2 and driver version 1.1.0 was installed. Several Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drives were mounted to create various RAID configurations. DiskTester 2.0 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the RAID performed. DiskTester is a Terminal application that measures the combined performance of a volume and the Mac OS X operating system. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester to work testing how the RAID will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. The table below displays the performance provided when using eight SATA hard drives in a direct connect configuration.
RocketRAID 2522 Direct Connect 8 Drive Striped RAID Set Comparison
 Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type | ||||
| Drives Used |
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
568 - 576
|
562 - 576
|
563 - 570
|
500 - 562
|
| 10% |
573 - 562
|
573 - 567
|
544 - 569
|
499 - 564
|
| 20% |
561 - 558
|
560 - 546
|
538 - 561
|
502 - 548
|
| 30% |
536 - 548
|
550 - 547
|
539 - 546
|
498 - 530
|
| 40% |
520 - 527
|
514 - 525
|
512 - 526
|
481 - 528
|
| 50% |
502 - 504
|
493 - 501
|
496 - 504
|
504 - 502
|
| 60% |
467 - 469
|
545 - 468
|
462 - 469
|
457 - 468
|
| 70% |
436 - 443
|
443 - 438
|
441 - 443
|
441 - 441
|
| 80% |
398 - 398
|
395 - 394
|
394 - 400
|
392 - 400
|
| 90% |
349 - 354
|
355 - 349
|
349 - 354
|
346 - 355
|
| 100% |
289 - 289
|
284 - 286
|
287 - 291
|
286 - 289
|
| Average |
473 - 475
|
471 - 473
|
466 - 476
|
446 - 472
|
| MSRP |
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
| Configuration |
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
| Volume Size |
2.33TB
|
2.33TB
|
2.33TB
|
2.33TB
|
The table above demonstrates that the HighPoint RocketRAID 2522 controller performs very well with an eight drive direct connect configuration. During these tests, Mac OS X 10.4.10 seems to provide a slight performance advantage over Mac OS X 10.5.
Direct RAID 5 & 10The next table displays the performance of the RocketRAID 2522 controller utilizing eight hard drives with RAID 5 and RAID 10 configurations. The same Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drives used in the striped RAID test above were reformatted to create a RAID 5 and RAID 10 configuration using the HighPoint web manager.
RocketRAID 2522 Direct Connect 8 Drive RAID 5 & 10 Performance
|
Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type | ||||
| Drives Used |
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
506 - 503
|
503 - 503
|
287 - 298
|
289 - 298
|
| 10% |
503 - 497
|
501 - 498
|
287 - 298
|
285 - 297
|
| 20% |
489 - 490
|
488 - 490
|
281 - 291
|
281 - 291
|
| 30% |
482 - 479
|
480 - 478
|
275 - 283
|
275 - 282
|
| 40% |
460 - 459
|
459 - 459
|
264 - 273
|
264 - 272
|
| 50% |
441 - 439
|
439 - 439
|
251 - 261
|
251 - 258
|
| 60% |
407 - 410
|
408 - 409
|
235 - 246
|
234 - 245
|
| 70% |
387 - 387
|
386 - 388
|
222 - 229
|
222 - 227
|
| 80% |
350 - 349
|
351 - 350
|
199 - 212
|
199 - 210
|
| 90% |
309 - 310
|
309 - 310
|
177 - 182
|
177 - 182
|
| 100% |
254 - 254
|
255 - 254
|
146 - 151
|
146 - 151
|
| Average |
417 - 416
|
416 - 416
|
239 - 248
|
238 - 247
|
| MSRP |
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
| Volume Size |
2.04TB
|
2.04TB
|
1.16TB
|
1.16TB
|
The HighPoint web manager allows the user to enable or disable NCQ. During these RAID 5 and 10 performance tests, it was discovered that enabling NCQ provided a slight performance gain while using the Seagate 320GB hard drives. This may or may not be the case with your particular RAID setup. However, it may be worth testing both methods when configuring a disk array.
Port MultiplierThe next table displays the performance of the RocketRAID 2522 controller utilizing several SATA PM striped RAID set configurations. The same Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drives were used in this test.
RocketRAID 2522 SATA PM 5-15 Drive Striped RAID Set Performance
|
Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type |
1 SATA PM
|
1 SATA PM
|
2 SATA PM
|
3 SATA PM
|
| Drives Used |
5 Hard Drives
|
5 Hard Drives
|
10 Hard Drives
|
15 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
220 - 216
|
213 - 210
|
430 - 411
|
602 - 574
|
| 10% |
221 - 215
|
212 - 210
|
435 - 415
|
595 - 561
|
| 20% |
221 - 215
|
212 - 211
|
432 - 413
|
603 - 585
|
| 30% |
220 - 216
|
213 - 211
|
435 - 415
|
603 - 581
|
| 40% |
222 - 216
|
213 - 212
|
432 - 413
|
596 - 552
|
| 50% |
220 - 216
|
214 - 213
|
435 - 416
|
602 - 586
|
| 60% |
221 - 217
|
214 - 215
|
432 - 416
|
604 - 563
|
| 70% |
222 - 219
|
213 - 216
|
435 - 422
|
606 - 593
|
| 80% |
221 - 225
|
215 - 219
|
434 - 427
|
604 - 563
|
| 90% |
220 - 227
|
214 - 218
|
433 - 433
|
603 - 616
|
| 100% |
185 - 186
|
186 - 185
|
360 - 363
|
503 - 508
|
| Average |
218 - 215
|
211 - 211
|
427 - 413
|
593 - 571
|
| MSRP |
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
| Configuration |
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
| Volume Size |
1.45B
|
1.45B
|
2.91TB
|
4.36TB
|
The driver version tested with the RocketRAID 2522 was rr2522-mac-v110-103107. While testing the SATA PM performance of the RocketRAID 2522, a few interesting details were discovered.
Points of Interest
• 1. If the SATA PM mounted hard drives are initialized by the HighPoint driver they will no longer show up in Disk Utility. Once initialized by the HighPoint driver, the hard drives have to be re-initialized by another host adapter to be displayed in Disk Utility again.
• 2. A maximum of 16 SATA PM mounted hard drives can be viewed with Disk Utility when using the current 2522 driver. This means if you want to utilize more than 16 hard drives in a SATA PM configuration, RocketRAID 2522 users will need to utilize the HighPoint web manager to create the configuration.
• 3. A bug was discovered that would not allow a striped RAID set volume created by the web manager with 20+ SATA PM hard drives mounted in five or more SATA PM enclosures to erase with Disk Utility. Creating a RAID 5 volume first and then re-initializing it as a striped RAID set allowed Disk Utility to erase and partition the new volume.
Hopefully, some of these issues will be addressed in a future driver update.
RocketRAID 2522 SATA PM 16-20 Drive Striped RAID Set Performance
|
Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type |
4 SATA PM
|
4 SATA PM
|
4 SATA PM
|
5 SATA PM
|
| Drives Used |
16 Hard Drives
|
16 Hard Drives
|
20 Hard Drives
|
20 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
712 - 626
|
700 - 672
|
669 - 688
|
704 - 667
|
| 10% |
715 - 629
|
700 - 670
|
663 - 603
|
721 - 656
|
| 20% |
721 - 651
|
707 - 677
|
672 - 684
|
708 - 602
|
| 30% |
713 - 642
|
701 - 661
|
665 - 682
|
717 - 678
|
| 40% |
717 - 648
|
704 - 678
|
661 - 588
|
702 - 666
|
| 50% |
712 - 647
|
700 - 674
|
668 - 680
|
724 - 626
|
| 60% |
718 - 656
|
707 - 676
|
673 - 694
|
704 - 677
|
| 70% |
712 - 652
|
688 - 682
|
654 - 601
|
724 - 680
|
| 80% |
718 - 670
|
682 - 691
|
679 - 693
|
699 - 617
|
| 90% |
686 - 677
|
669 - 690
|
661 - 615
|
712 - 679
|
| 100% |
565 - 568
|
583 - 578
|
662 - 693
|
627 - 622
|
| Average |
699 - 642
|
686 - 668
|
666 - 656
|
704 - 652
|
| MSRP |
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
| Configuration |
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
| Volume Size |
4.65TB
|
4.65TB
|
5.82TB
|
5.82TB
|
The tests above display that while a 16 drive SATA PM configuration can provide a smooth performance curve, using 20+ hard drives starts to provide more erratic jumps in the performance data. This trend continues as more and more drives are added. As the RocketRAID 2522 seems to perform best while using only four hard drives per 5-bay enclosure, this configuration was utilized for all tests with more than twenty SATA hard drives.
RocketRAID 2522 SATA PM 24-28 Drive Striped RAID Set Performance
|
Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type |
6 SATA PM
|
7 SATA PM
|
8 SATA PM
|
4 SATA PM
|
| Drives Used |
24 Hard Drives
|
28 Hard Drives
|
32 Hard Drives
|
16 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
721 - 744
|
757 - 739
|
735 - 771
|
700 - 672
|
| 10% |
710 - 575
|
744 - 727
|
759 - 785
|
700 - 670
|
| 20% |
729 - 729
|
765 - 670
|
732 - 672
|
707 - 677
|
| 30% |
717 - 740
|
748 - 729
|
761 - 787
|
701 - 661
|
| 40% |
721 - 746
|
765 - 742
|
735 - 771
|
704 - 678
|
| 50% |
702 - 564
|
746 - 729
|
758 - 784
|
700 - 674
|
| 60% |
731 - 748
|
763 - 673
|
740 - 774
|
707 - 676
|
| 70% |
708 - 738
|
735 - 734
|
757 - 616
|
688 - 682
|
| 80% |
727 - 569
|
764 - 743
|
738 - 776
|
682 - 691
|
| 90% |
718 - 734
|
740 - 671
|
758 - 786
|
669 - 690
|
| 100% |
725 - 745
|
768 - 744
|
727 - 775
|
583 - 578
|
| Average |
719 - 694
|
754 - 718
|
745 - 754
|
686 - 668
|
| MSRP |
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
$399
|
| Configuration |
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
| Volume Size |
6.55TB
|
7.64TB
|