10G Ethernet: More Than a Big Pipe
by Johan De Gelas on November 24, 2010 2:34 PM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
- Networking
- 10G Ethernet
Consolidation and Choking
If we consolidate storage, network, and management traffic in a single or dual 10GbE cable, a simpler, cheaper and easier to manage datacenter is in reach. So how well do the new NICs cope with these I/O demands? We decided to mix a VM with an iSCSI initiator that is sending off lots of storage traffic with three VMs that are demanding lots of “normal” network traffic. In our first scenario we simulate the “I don’t have time to properly configure” scenario. We just hooked up one VM with an iSCSI initiator, and three other VMs were running IxChariot endpoints, creating as much traffic as they like.
It is easy to notice that the four virtual function NICs allow the Neterion X3120 to spread the load more evenly. The iSCSI VM runs 50% faster on the Neterion chip, which is significant. Reading the disk blocks 50% faster can make a real difference to the end-user, as the user experience is in many applications highly depended on the slow disks.
Let us see how much CPU load was necessary to keep this kind of brutal network traffic under control. The two CPUs on the virtual node were Xeon X5670 2.93GHz.
The Neterion chip does a better job at a slightly lower CPU load.
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Kahlow - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Great article! The argument between fiber and 10gig E is interesting but from what I have seen it is extremely application and workload dependant that you would have to have a 100 page review to be able to figure out what media is better for what workload.Also, in most cases your disk arrays are the real bottleneck and max’ing your 10gig E or your FC isn’t the issue.
It is good to have a reference point though and to see what 10gig translates to under testing.
Thanks for the review,
JohanAnandtech - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Thanks.I agree that it highly depends on the workload. However, there are lots and lots of smaller setups out there that are now using unnecessarily complicated and expensive setups (several physical separated GbE and FC). One of objective was to show that there is an alternative. As many readers have confirmed, a dual 10GbE can be a great solution if your not running some massive databases.
pablo906 - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
It's free and you can get it up and running in no time. It's gaining a tremendous amount of users because of the recent Virtual Desktop licensing program Citrix pushed. You could double your XenApp (MetaFrame Presentation Server) license count and upgrade them to XenDesktop for a very low price, cheaper than buying additonal XenApp licenses. I know of at least 10 very large organizations that are testing XenDesktop and preparing rollouts right now.What gives. VMWare is not the only Hypervisor out there.
wilber67 - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
Am I missing something in some of the comments?Many are discussing FCoE and I do not believe any of the NICs tested were CNAs, just 10GE NICs.
FCoE requires a CNA (Converged Network Adapter). Also, you cannot connect them to a garden variety 10GE switch and use FCoE. . And, don't forget that you cannot route FCoE.
gdahlm - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
You can use software initiators on switches which support 802.3X flow control. Many web managed switches do support 802.3X as do most 10GE adapters.I am unsure how that would effect performance at in a virtualized shared environment as I believe it pauses on the port level.
If you workload is not storage or network bound it would work but I am betting that when you hit that hard knee in your performance curve that things get ugly pretty quick.
DyCeLL - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
To bad HP virtual connect couldn't be tested (a blade option).It splits the 10GB nics in a max of 8 Nics for the blades. It can do it for fiber and ethernet.
Check: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualc...
James5mith - Friday, February 18, 2011 - link
I still think that 40Gbps Infiniband is the best solution. By far it seems to be the best $/Gbps ratio of any of the platforms. Not to mention it can pass pretty much any traffic type you want.saah - Thursday, March 24, 2011 - link
I loved the article.I just reminded myself that VMware published official drivers for the ESX4 recently: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx4x_intel_...
The ixgbe version is 3.1.17.1.
Since the post says that "enables support for products based on the Intel 82598 and 82599 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers." I would like to see the test redone with an 82599-based card and recent drivers.
Would it be feasible?