IOMeter Results over software iSCSI Initiator

[jkgraham]

A few months ago I found some information about the results from IOMeter being incorrect when testing from a VM. I was unable to find that info again so I decided to post these results. The are definitely incorrect and would like to know if anyone else has seen this. This is using the software ISCSI initiator. IO meter was run from Windows XP guest. The disk target was an unformatted vmdk.

I ran the Access Specifications from the Quick Start section of the iometer users guide. This access specification was labeled (I/Os per second)

Transfer Request Size 512bytes.

100% read

100% sequential

Results:

31K IOs per second.

15.15 MBs per second.

0.0313 Avg IO response time

I also ran the access specification labeled (Megabytes per second)

20K IOs per second.

1284.54MB sec

0.0477 Avg IO response time

I feel these results are ridiculously high compared to other results I have seen on the forums. Any ideas on how to get these results to be something I can trust?

Thanks

[admin · Accepted solution]

Try running the tests with the .icf file from this thread.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=73745&start=0&tstart=0

[jkgraham]

The icf file at http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=73745&start=0&tstart=0 worked well. The results were more of what I expected.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TABLE OF RESULTS VM on ESX / Celerra NS40

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SERVER TYPE: ESX 3.0.1

CPU TYPE / NUMBER: VCPU / 1

HOST TYPE: Dell 2950, 16GB, 2x XEON 5140 2.327Ghz

STORAGE TYPE / DISK NUMBER / RAID LEVEL: R1 2x15k FC Drives

SAN TYPE / HBAs : iSCSI; ESX softw. initiator(only uses 1GB NIC), 2XGb NIC for iSCSI

##################################################################################

TEST NAME--

---

Av. Resp. Time ms--Av. IOs/sec---Av. MB/sec----

##################################################################################

Max Throughput-100%Read........____44.2____..........___1356___.........__41.45____

RealLife-60%Rand-65%Read......_____99.81____..........___554___.........____4.33____

Max Throughput-50%Read........____44.18____..........___1305___.........____41.52___

Random-8k-70%Read............._____96.45____..........___553___.........____4.29____

Notes: Windows XP guest, Cisco 6509 VLAN, Host connected via Link Aggregation, Celerra

Connected via link aggregation. No jumbo frames because of software initiatior.