ML350 G5 Network HP 110T PCIE

[Piqueonline]

I'm having trouble transferring files, is presenting a very low transfer rate, here the problem.

Server1

1. lspci

06:00.00 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Server 2

1. lspci

16:00.00 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection

Server 1

1. pwd

/vmfs/volumes/4ba10442-164f5df0-bc46-001871eab933/Openvpn

1. scp -P 22 root@server2:/vmfs/volumes/4be005d5-17db0e26-15ad-001b214132e0/Openvpn/Openvpn-flat.vmdk .

Openvpn-flat.vmdk 0% 373MB 7.8MB/s 2:10:27 ETA/

details :

Network Gigabit

Cable Cat6 -- Crossover

Because the transfer is so low?

[Piqueonline]

anyone?

[J1mbo]

Does the server being copied to have battery-backed write-cache installed?

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

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[vsekar]

Cross cable connectivity data transfer is normally low. What is the data are trying to transfer. Looks some VMDK file.

[Piqueonline]

Let me be clearer.

I am having two servers, with a ML350 with 4 gigabit cards and other server ML110 G6 with 3 gigabit cards.

There is a gigabit card that makes the connection between the two servers ML, and Gigabit network card with cable cat6 cross.

I tried to transfer (copy) of a virtual machine for ML110 ML350 G5, G6, and vmware esxi4U1 customized for the HP ML350 and ML110 G5 is the fourth version of VMware ESXi U1.

The transfer rate was really low copying a vmdk, was no more than 8MB.

I did a new test virtual machines communicating by two single NIC with crossover cable and the speed was the same.

I took the two network cards and called in two other ML110 I have in hand and installed debian, the speed was between 40MB per second.

Now I ask, this may be limitation of VMware ESXi?

Thank's

[J1mbo]

How are you copying the files? Using datastore browser, it trundles along at about 10MB/s tops.

Does the TARGET machine have battery-backed write-cache? Running RAID without it will give you these kinds of thoughputs.

You don't need a crossover cable (or Cat-6) to connect two GbE NICs directly.

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[Piqueonline]

I am copying the files using scp from VMware ESXi

running the following command:

scp-P 22 root @ server2: / vmfs/volumes/4be005d5-17db0e26-15ad-001b214132e0/Openvpn/Openvpn-flat.vmdk.

In both ML raid card I have (hardware) level RAID1. In either not active "battery-backed write-cache."

I am using cable CA6 because it works on a frequency of 250MHZ providing a better speed in transfers.

Thank's

[J1mbo]

The limitation you find is because of the lack of BBWC on the RAID controller, but also SCP is limited to about 10MB/s anyway.

Cat-6 will provide no throughput advantage at all, the throughput is set by the underlying protocol which is 1000 Mbps Ethernet. Cat-6 STP allows longer runs in noisy environments though (for example large bunches of cables).

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

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[Piqueonline]

Right.

Then come the main points:

1 - scp vmware limits the speed up to 10MB / s, there is a way to remove this limit?

2 - I did a test using two virtual machines on top of these two servers using the same network card, download a file. Iso, between a virtual machine and another, and the speed was between 10MB / s, is that correct?

3 - Even without enabling the BBWC module will not manage to get transfer rates up to 20MB / s?

4 - In practice then I can remove the cables cat6? even working at high frequencies will not manage to get a gigabit transfência, even though the cables cat5 provide this support but at lower frequencies?

Thank's

[J1mbo]

In answer to your questions,

1. ESXi has a coded limit, but there are options like Veeam - http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esxi-fastscp.html

2. The vm-to-vm limit is likely because of storage limitation at the destination. Because nothing is performing any write-caching without the BBWC, the performance is very poor

3. With BBWC you will see performance closer to Gigabit speeds, or at least closer to the limitation of your RAID controlelr

4. The frequencies quoted on cables are marketting fluff unfortunately. All that matters is the connection type (100Mbps, Gigabit, 10-Gb) and whether the cable is certified (cat-5e or cat-6 are fine for gigabit). My point was really that you don't need special cross-over cables with gigabit though.

HTH

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[Piqueonline]

One more question.

This module can BBWC where and how do I enable? would be an additional memory controller?

Thank you.

[J1mbo]

It is specific to the RAID controllers you are using. Which cards do you have?

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[Piqueonline]

ML350 G5 - HP Smart Array E200 controller - http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarraye200/index.htm...

ML110 G6 - HP Smart Array P410 controller - http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarrayp410/index.htm...

[J1mbo]

OK, so for the E200 you need the 128MB BBWC module here.

And for the P410 either the 512MB BBWC module or the battery for the 256MB controller, depending on what you have, here.

Hope this helps.

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

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[Piqueonline]

thanks for the help.

I'll see if I can get these modules.