Multiple Gateways

[JLee_1]

I'm looking for a way to improve network throughput on an rp3440 (11.11) running 8 virtual apache web portals. Each VHost has its own IP/NIC (100FD) port. Here's a netstat -ain . .
# netstat -ain
Name Mtu Network Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Coll
lan3 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.110 96397 0 2735 0 0
lan0:1 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.103 101709817 0 294258 0 0
lan10 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.117 69476097 12992 251394161 0 32596988
lan9 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.116 2047191 0 1343426 0 6250
lan1 1500 10.1.1.0 10.1.1.100 795222 0 795222 0 0
lan8 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.115 1524044 0 1155 0 0
lan0 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.101 10867152 0 546416 0 0
lo0 4136 127.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 6569696 0 6569696 0 0
lan7 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.114 6561153 0 1758291 0 0
lan6 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.113 580804 0 5997 0 0
lan5 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.112 3563159 0 2560160 0 0
lan4 1500 199.26.211.96 199.26.211.111 25041 0 1167 0 0

and a netstat -rn
# netstat -rn
Routing tables
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Interface Pmtu
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 0 lo0 4136
10.1.1.100 10.1.1.100 UH 0 lan1 4136
199.26.211.111 199.26.211.111 UH 0 lan4 4136
199.26.211.110 199.26.211.110 UH 0 lan3 4136
199.26.211.101 199.26.211.101 UH 0 lan0 4136
199.26.211.103 199.26.211.103 UH 0 lan0:1 4136
199.26.211.113 199.26.211.113 UH 0 lan6 4136
199.26.211.112 199.26.211.112 UH 0 lan5 4136
199.26.211.115 199.26.211.115 UH 0 lan8 4136
199.26.211.114 199.26.211.114 UH 0 lan7 4136
199.26.211.117 199.26.211.117 UH 0 lan10 4136
199.26.211.116 199.26.211.116 UH 0 lan9 4136
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.117 U 2 lan10 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.116 U 2 lan9 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.115 U 2 lan8 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.114 U 2 lan7 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.113 U 2 lan6 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.112 U 2 lan5 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.111 U 2 lan4 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.110 U 2 lan3 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.101 U 3 lan0 1500
199.26.211.96 199.26.211.103 U 3 lan0:1 1500
10.1.1.0 10.1.1.100 U 2 lan1 1500
127.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 U 0 lo0 0
default 199.26.211.97 UG 0 lan10 0

The question is, how can we have more than one gateway and would it improve performance of we could have multiple GW's?
Any help, is much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim

[Antonio Cardoso_1]

Hi,

HP-APA (Auto port aggregation) is mayb the answer:
http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=J4240AA

[JLee_1]

Antonio,
Thanks for the info. I'll have to get approval ($1120.), but it looks like this may be the answer we're looking for.

Any other thought's out there?

Jim

[rick jones · Accepted solution]

Generally speaking, if you want multiple NICs configured into the same IP subnet, APA is the way to go. You want to make sure you select an apropriate load balancing algorithm.

The nice thing about APA is it makes those N NICs look like one NIC to the transport, which is rather cleaner.

As for alternatives...

As it stands, unless you have set ip_strong_es_model to 1 or 2, or have lots of specific static routes, all your outbound traffic goes out one interface - I got a little lost trying to look at the netstat stats, but it looks like you may have already set ip_strong_es_model?

If your router(s) support proxy ARP, and you have set ip_strong_es_model to 1 or 2 - 2 is the "firm_es_model" as it were - source IP is included in route selection, without the restriction on inbound IP datagrams being accepted only on the interface with that IP assigned - you can set each of your local IP's as a "default" route with a metric of 0, then all the off-subnet traffic would be spread across the NICs rather than through just the one.

Also, you might consider upgrading those 10 or 11 100BT NICs for a couple Gigabit NICs. The GbE NICs offer the prospect of HW ChecKsum Offload (CKO), better interrupt avoidance, and TSO or "large send" which can let TCP send larger "segments" to the NIC which will then segment them to the apropriate size for the connection.

Finally, check your lan10 NIC - it is showing errors and collisions in the netstat -in output. I'd look at the lanadmin statistics, and consider them in light of the attached. I have to say I'm not much of a fan of hardcoding NIC/switch settings... :)