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GBTurpin
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Slow uploads w/ RHEL5 NFSv3 Exports and ESX 3.0.2 Update 1

Ok,

This is a really odd one and VMware Platnum support isn't solving this problem to quickly (it's been days):

I've got a Dell 1850 v3 PE server running ESX 3.0.2 with a multipathed fiber channel CX500 SAN configuration. (ESX qualified QLogic 2GB FC cards...)

The server have 8GB of RAM and mirror 36GB system drives that ESX is installed too, with the VM storage being on the SAN.

The SAN is dedicated to this ESX host.

I've got a RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 Server VM (so basically a Fedora Core 6 server) with the VMware Tools installed, 2 CPUs, 4GB of RAM allocated to it through ESX.

Since I'm not a Linux god, I'm not entirely certain that I know how to install netpref, so I've run some other tests.

If I copy a 268MB file up to an NFSv3 share coming from the RHEL5 VM, I get about 6MB/sec when uploading the file.

If I downlaod a 268MB file (the same one) from the NFSv3 export on the RHEL5 VM, I get about 57MB/sec.

On a real machine, with the same configuration on the same nework, I get 60MB/sec up and 115MB/sec down. (It's a dedicated Cisco 3750 switch... with all sysems involved on it.)

The guest VM shows no network errors on the NICs, and a scan of the traffic on the physical network doesn't show any issues either...

What should I look for?

Gerhard

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osde_info
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Our SC NFS speeds are disappointing too !

dedicated 1G 172.x.x.x between two ESX 3.0.2 (with or w/o crossover cable) gave us a NFS speed of 25M/bits/sec when copying 10G-40G VMDKs (SCP was even slower)

maybe the SC is throttled in some way ?

regards

clive

regards clive http://vizz.info
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GBTurpin
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well, I'm seeing about a 40% difference between a real HW system and a VM in VMware ESX 3.0.2 with the CX500.

I ran a copy test up to the CX500 through the RHEL5 real system running on a Dell 2650 (I moved the FC HBAs over from the 1850 I was previously using.), and I am seeing 99MB/sec up to the SAN.

...and that's going through an NFS share to another system over 1000BaseT to the Dell 2650.

So, VMware just doesn't work well with CX500's... My test with the physical system was a sustained test of 720GB up to the SAN using RSYNC, so I can comfortably say that it was a real world test. Seeing 99MB/sec up is pretty decent.

So of the folks are other organizations I've spoken with have indicated similar issues.

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