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Home > Archive > Data Storage > March 2005 > Better iSCSI Configuration -- iSCSI HBA or Multi-port Gbit NIC?
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Better iSCSI Configuration -- iSCSI HBA or Multi-port Gbit NIC?
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| Troy Reid 2005-03-05, 2:45 am |
| While I understand iSCSI protocol performance is a combination of
latency, throughput and host resource overhead, which iSCSI
configuration would provide better overall performance?
A) An iSCSI HBA such as the Adaptec ASA-7211 with a single 1Gbit
Ethernet port, or;
B) A dual port NIC such as the Intel Pro/1000MT Dual Port Server
Adapter (PWLA8492MT) using hardware off-load for TCP
Checksum/Segmentation/Large Send, IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation and
the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Software.
Assuming the host resource overhead for either configuration is
negligible or not significantly different, the real question is
ultimately how much does an increase in both throughput and latency
impact this transmission system.
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| KOOLER 2005-03-05, 7:45 am |
| Troy,
generally speaking there's no much sense in link aggregation. First of
all b/s it's very poorly implemented in MS OSes (you would not get
doubled performance even close). Second you'll need both initiator and
target supporting multiple connections over single iSCSI session (quite
rare beast today) to utilize 1+ link. And in any case even TOE-enabled
NIC + software iSCSI initiator would eat more CPU then fully hardware
iSCSI stack implementation (HBA). So if HBA price is acceptable for you
- better stick with Adaptec iSCSI HBA.
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeysev
CEO, Rocket Division Software
Troy Reid wrote:
> While I understand iSCSI protocol performance is a combination of
> latency, throughput and host resource overhead, which iSCSI
> configuration would provide better overall performance?
>
> A) An iSCSI HBA such as the Adaptec ASA-7211 with a single 1Gbit
> Ethernet port, or;
>
> B) A dual port NIC such as the Intel Pro/1000MT Dual Port Server
> Adapter (PWLA8492MT) using hardware off-load for TCP
> Checksum/Segmentation/Large Send, IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation and
> the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Software.
>
> Assuming the host resource overhead for either configuration is
> negligible or not significantly different, the real question is
> ultimately how much does an increase in both throughput and latency
> impact this transmission system.
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