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I currently have all my drives as ultra320 and my external msa30s as ultra320 but my bus speed is running at wu3. I have just noticed that the msa1000 chassis io controller is wu3. The cli also tells me that the bus speed is 160MBps and there is a footnote that states: "The speed is the currently negotiated speed to the disk. This may
be less than the maximum speed supported by the device due to bus
faults, loss of signal integrity, etc."

CLI> show disks
box,bay bus,ID Size Speed Units
Disk101 1,01 0,00 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk102 1,02 0,01 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk103 1,03 0,02 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk104 1,04 0,03 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk105 1,05 0,04 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk106 1,06 0,05 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk107 1,07 0,08 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk108 1,08 1,00 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk109 1,09 1,01 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk110 1,10 1,02 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk111 1,11 1,03 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk112 1,12 1,04 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk113 1,13 1,05 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0
Disk114 1,14 1,08 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 0 (spare)
Disk201 2,01 2,00 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk202 2,02 2,01 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk203 2,03 2,02 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk204 2,04 2,03 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk205 2,05 2,04 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk206 2,06 2,05 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk207 2,07 2,08 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk208 2,08 2,09 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk209 2,09 2,10 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk210 2,10 2,11 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk211 2,11 2,12 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk212 2,12 2,13 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk213 2,13 2,14 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1
Disk214 2,14 2,15 72.8 GB 160 MB/s 1 (spare)
Disk301 3,01 3,00 146.8 GB 160 MB/s 2
Disk302 3,02 3,01 146.8 GB 160 MB/s 2
Disk303 3,03 3,02 146.8 GB 160 MB/s 2
Disk314 3,14 3,15 146.8 GB 160 MB/s 2 (spare)

Notes:
The speed is the currently negotiated speed to the disk. This may
be less than the maximum speed supported by the device due to bus
faults, loss of signal integrity, etc.

If I spend £500 on an hp ultra320 IO module 287483-b21 will this correctly upgrade the bus speed?

Also is there a utility to measure how much of the 160MBps bus speed I am utilising at any one point. I can then determine whether it is worth me spending the £500 and upgrading to ultra320.

Jez,

If I understand you correctly, the limitation is with the MSA as it's a WU3 controller (a SA 5304 in disguise!), so irrespective of drive speed the bottlneck i'm afraid is with the MSA.

My advice would be to save the £500, and donate it to the HOST Instructors benevolent fund!

Bus bandwidth tends not to be the limiting factor on disk arrays - (even EVA subsystems use FCAL disks which are connected to a fibre running at 200MB/sec). Unless you have a high data rate application, such as video streaming, or are regularly moving large volumes of data (data analysis, high backup volumes???) - the more significant factor in performance is the I/O rate, which would be relatively unaffected by bus bandwidth.

Be aware that if you do decide to convert to U320 - the termination, and the cabling have to be rated to support that speed, (cables & terminators usually have it printed on them).

I don't know the MSA that well, and I don't know of any tools that would tell you the actual bus utilization. Maybe Windows performance monitor might give you some clues if you have response issues

Cheers,

FT