NFS Mount Options & Performance with NetApp Filer

[Declan Mc Kay]

Hi, I'm currently trying to re-locate some Application D/Base file's onto an NFS Mount. NFS Server is a Network Applicance Filer. However, problem is, when I start the Application it takes 12 -> 15 times longer when data is stored on an NFS Mount compared to when located on local disk. I've been told that NFS/UDP is performs alot better than NFS/TCP. How do I check/change what I currently have set? I'd like to try NFS v2, think v3 is be taken as default. When I do a mount -v I get the following: blinky-e0:/edivol/plex1 on /plex1 type nfs rsize=32768,wsize=32768,NFSv3 on Mon3... My mount Cmd is simple mount server:/Directory MntPoint Appreciate any NFS information which may help me. Current OS is UX11i.

[Pete Randall]

NFS performance is going to be lousy whether it's UDP or TCP. You would be much better off to store this data locally, even if it means buying more disk space.


Pete

[Mark Landin]

NFS TCP does have a small overhead compared to NFS UDP. NFS v3 does perform better than v2, however.

However, Pete is right ... it's very very unlikely that you can get NFS to perform like local disk, even if you have a blistering fast networks and old SCSI-2 drives.

Here's link to a wonderful NFS discussion by Dave Olker at HP:
http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechDocumentDetailPage_IDX/1,1701,952,00.html

This is a presentation I've seen Dave give at multiple conferences. It's the best treatment of the "black art" of NFS I've come across. It's also the basis for a 300-page book Mr. Olker is publishing through Prentice-Hall, but this paper is free. :)