0.9.8 L2-Cache not working Topic is solved

[piquadrat]

I can't get PrimoCache v 0.9.8 to work with ssd caching.
After setting up 26GB on my ssd drive as a Level2 Storage I was able to Define Cache task (I'm read/write caching raid-5 volume with Applications in my system) without L1 cache.
But nothing seems to be written to the cache. No matter how many times I run, how many times the same documents are being opened L2 Storage Write stopped at 2.33MB. No speed improvement either.
Tried to leave the computer idle for half an hour and restart the system to no avail.
0.9.2 worked perfectly.
What am I doing wrong?

[piquadrat]

I have the following error in the Event Log after each boot:
"The PrimoCache Service service is marked as an interactive service. However, the system is configured to not allow interactive services. This service may not function properly."

Code: Select all

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="49152">7030</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>0</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2014-01-22T06:26:55.823213900Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>341827</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="864" ThreadID="4792" /> 
  <Channel>System</Channel> 
  <Computer>QuadGun</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data Name="param1">PrimoCache Service</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

It was not present in versions prior to 0.9.8

Update: I've managed to get rid of this Event by setting "Interactive Service Detection" service to Automatic (from Manual)

[piquadrat]

I played a little bit more with other cache options. Obviously samething's wrong.
No matter what kind of cache it is (L1 only, L2 only, L1/L2) I have always:
L2Storage Read = 0
L2Storage Write = 0 or very small hundreds of KB at most
The strange thing is
Total Read
Total Write
indicate disk activity and in case of L1 cache Hit Rate is above 0 but cache seems not to be working at all.
L2 cache based task returns always Hit Rate = 0%

I've tried uninstalling the app and fresh install but nothing changed.
Any help will be appreciated.

PS I was able to crash GUI during the Cache reconfiguration with:

Code: Select all

Faulting application name: FancyCcV.exe, version: 0.9.8.0, time stamp: 0x52d968bb
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000003f86ec6d
Faulting process id: 0x1024
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf17534e1fb08b
Faulting application path: C:\Utilities\Hard Drives\PrimoCache\FancyCcV.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 95f64bbb-8349-11e3-bc23-005056c00008

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Code: Select all

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Application Error" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>100</Task> 
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2014-01-22T09:43:03.000000000Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>233382</EventRecordID> 
  <Channel>Application</Channel> 
  <Computer>QuadGun</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data>FancyCcV.exe</Data> 
  <Data>0.9.8.0</Data> 
  <Data>52d968bb</Data> 
  <Data>unknown</Data> 
  <Data>0.0.0.0</Data> 
  <Data>00000000</Data> 
  <Data>c0000005</Data> 
  <Data>000000003f86ec6d</Data> 
  <Data>1024</Data> 
  <Data>01cf17534e1fb08b</Data> 
  <Data>C:\Utilities\Hard Drives\PrimoCache\FancyCcV.exe</Data> 
  <Data>unknown</Data> 
  <Data>95f64bbb-8349-11e3-bc23-005056c00008</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

[Support]

Thanks! We tuned the l2 cache alogrithm in version 0.9.9. We'd appreciate it if you have time to try this version.

[piquadrat]

Certainly I will and share the results.

[piquadrat]

Unfortunately for me not much of a change.
There are some constant writings to the L2 storage but with a very, very low rate. About 10MB per hour. As I'm using around 20 applications with more or less 1GB of reading from the volume each it will be months until they were eventually be cached at this rate.

I see reports where people get instant read boost just after first reboot. Not in my case. The data are never going to the cache in large packs, only drop by drop in KB per minute rate. Unusable. I was trying to get the best idle conditions as I could but whatever I've done (closing background application, leaving the system on logon screen etc.) nothings changed.

I thought that something prevents to meet the idle condition as my cache partition lies on the same physical drive (Crucial SSD) as a Win7 64-bit system partition and there is always some traffic to the system volume (logs etc.) So I put another SSD (Intel G3) to the test, made cache volume on it and turn off Crucial caching permanently switching to the Intel. No change. The same painfully slow background writing.

Next idea was that the problem is the volume being cached. In my case it was RAID-5 array built from 4 WD platter drives. It was a part of a intel's matrix storage where there were 2 volumes on the same physical set: RAID-0 on the outer cylinders and RAID-5 on the inner ones. So I deleted the task associated with RAID-5, created a new one and started to cache the system partition (pointless from performance perspective but for the sake of greater good...). No change. No data in cache after first, second, third reboot. This time it was fairly typical configuration: system drive cached by a separate ssd drive. But also no go.

I have really hard time with revisions 0.9.8 and 0.9.9. I believe there is something in my system which is effectively blocking the deferred writings to L2 cache volume. Primo process is trying to do background write but some interruption occur. Strange thing, L1 seems to work correctly (writing/reading). So the mechanism responsible for collecting block usage information looks like working ok.

It would be helpful if you implement some form of L2 write button to invoke all scheduled L2 writes at once manually. That way I could separate the problem and go further.

PS. Nevertheless I like the idea of L2 not contribute to every read/write operation on cached volume. It is more transparent especially where sequential performance of the array is higher than the capability of cache volume. First, non-cached read is quicker.

[Support]

Can you check the following thing?
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools ->Performance Monitor.
Is there any error message pops up when you open Performance Monitor?
Also please check Administrative Tools ->Services and see if PrimoCache Service is started or not.

Thanks.

[piquadrat]

Service is started.
Opening Performance Monitor gives this popup:

Performance Monitor error

PrimoCache-PerfMonit-Popup.jpg (20.36 KiB) Viewed 7375 times

I managed to get rid of this error by enabling counters from elevated command line:
lodctr /e:PerfDisk

Now have to check if something's changed...

...and it seems to be working now. Just after reading from cached volume, when at idle state L2Storage is being fed with new data. Hit Rate is high. I have to do some tests but so far so good.

[Support]

I'm glad that your issue is now fixed! Yes, usually "lodctr /r" command will fix the errors in Windows performance monitor.