iSCSI SW iniator, performance

[Dranizz]

I have seen on papers that from now on with VSphere, you don't need a SC for SW iniator to work.

What about LoadBalancing? If you configure many pNics and vNics on the IP Storage switch, will that make a difference in performance for SW iniator?

Also, will ESX 4 support multipathing with SW Iniator?

Thanks

[NicholasFarmer]

I still need to do some testing with the Software ISCSI in ESX4 but with ESX3.5 the software ISCSI was bad to use if your system is low on CPU resources.

Also the IOPS and MBPs was low in 3.5 compaired to hardware ISCSI but I plan to test this in ESX 4

Also, the Software ISCSI didn't "support" jumbo frames but now does.

We use hardware ISCSI adapters to reduce the CPU load on the host and the CHAP and ISCSI target information is stored on the hardware ISCSI HBA card.

Also check out this thread for the MPIO and load balance for the Software ISCSI init in ESX 4

[Dranizz]

The thing that I understand is that I have (by command) configured the VSwitch and Portgroup to be at 9000 MTU. And when I check my SAN it says it's connected using Jumbo Frames.

So then why everybody says that in 3.5 Juimbo Frames are not available??

Also, what I'm interested in, is to see how VSphere deal with performance, load balancing and iSCSI Sessions with SW compared to 3.5