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Re: VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

 
mortimer000
Occasional Visitor

VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

Hi all

 

I have set the cluster up as Network RAID10 withe x2 node P4300 G2 (teaming ALB)  and x2 switch HP Procurve 1810g

 

Each ESXi server has 2x 1Gb NICs connected to the iSCSI network and I've set MPIO to round robin.

 

I test disk performance in a VM :

 

15MB/s read

80MB/s write

 

 

I tested with a Windows iSCSI directly attached to P4300 volume :

 

110MB/s read

85MB/s   write

 

 

I follow all best bractise but same way, all my ESXi and P4300 is up to date

 


What wrong ??

5 REPLIES 5
Aart Kenens
Advisor

Re: VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

HP Procurve is not suitable for for iSCSI networks.

Entry level would be a 2910al switch wich is capable of flow control in combination with jumbo frames.

 

Check the net on how to configure iSCSI in vSphere 5 properly.

Don't use a Hardware nic based iSCSI iniator in vSphere but confiure iSCSI connection with the software iSCSI iniator which will give better performance and it is also more stable.

mortimer000
Occasional Visitor

Re: VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

I configure software iSCSI in VMware and I agree with the 1810 but I don't have a choice :(

 

my test with windows iscsi was with the same switch... and why the bandwidth is so poor only in read mode ?

 

any idea ?

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

sounds like a config issue w/ esx.  you sure flow control is on?  that is usually more important than jumbo frames.

 

Does the 1810 show you if the switch or ports are overloaded in its web interface?  I know the 1910 will.

 

since you can get the speed in windows, its probably not an issue with your storage devices as much as its an issue with something in your host config.

mortimer000
Occasional Visitor

Re: VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

Yes jambo frame and flow controle is enable in each switch, P4300 and ESXi

 

I try to disable jambo frame but it's the same way...

 

 

Unfortunely the web interface is very poor in 1810, I don't know if they are overloaded :(

 

 

I think it's more in vmware conf but what....?

5y53ng
Regular Advisor

Re: VMware 5.0 with LeftHand P4300 G2 good write - bad read

How do you have the NICs configured in ESX for iSCSI? Do you have two vmkernel ports, each with one VMNIC set to active and the other set as unused? Do you have these port bound to the iSCSI adapter? You can tinker with the IOPS per path setting to try and improve the performance as well.