ML350 G4 Network Speed Problem

[Hugh Poon]

I have purchased an Proliant ML350 server that comes with on-board NC7761 with the following configuration: Xeon 3.0 dual processor, running RAID 1+ 0 hardware RAID on the Win2k server platform.

For some reason, the performance of the on-board NC7761 Gigabit card is surprisingly slow. When we conduct an ftp file transfer test within the 100 M bit/sec LAN environment, it gives us an average throughput of 400 MByte/sec (3.2 M bit/sec).

So we plug in a third party network card (Realtek RTL8139(A) to be exact) and tested on the exact same platform, the average throughput measured is around 20 M bit/sec..

Since we are running an critical ERP application on the server, it is crucial to have the server configured at optimum network throughput. Is there anyway to improve the performance of the on-board network card?

[Hugh Poon]

Sorry, correction:

When we conduct an ftp file transfer test within the 100 M bit/sec LAN environment, it gives us an average throughput of 400 ***KByte/sec (3.2 M bit/sec).

[Mike.L]

Hi Hugh,

Just some general points worth looking at:

1) Check network lead.

2) Install lastest NIC Drivers etc.

3) Ensure Speed & Duplex Setting are correctly configured (as well as configuring / checking the Network switch / port you are connecting to.).

4) Flow Control settings configured correctly (may have to refer to Network switch instruction manual to see if supported and / or what method it uses).


Mike.

[Hugh Poon]

Thanks for the reply Mike. All of the setting on the NIC card are in its default value.

1) I am using the same network lead for both NIC card while testing.

2) The driver for NC7761 we use is 8.48.0.0. I think this is an updated version.

3) Speed & Duplex Setting are configured as Auto/Auto.

4) The flow control feature is disabled to avoid the flow control issue.