HP 2G Guide

April 2004

Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3

PCI-X 2 Gigabit Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet Performance Test Results .................... 5

Throughput ............................................................................................................... 6

GigE Traffic Alone Compared to GigE Traffic in Conjunction with FC Bidirectional .......... 6

FC Traffic Alone Compared to FC Traffic in Conjunction with GigE Bidirectional ............. 9

Performance Highlights ............................................................................................ 12

Suggested Use ........................................................................................................ 12

Achieving Best Performance and High Availability .................................................... 12

Test Details ............................................................................................................. 15

Test Details: Products Used in Testing ...................................................................... 15

Test Details: Test Configuration ............................................................................... 16

Additional Information ............................................................................................. 17

Taking the Next Step ............................................................................................... 17

Legal Notices .......................................................................................................... 18

PCI-X 2 Gigabit Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet

Performance

Using the HP rp8400 Server with Server Expansion Unit

Introduction

This article highlights the superb performance and high availability demonstrated when you

install HP’s new PCI-X multi-function 2 Gbit/s Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet adapters

in HP’s award-winning midrange rp8400 servers with Server Expansion Units (SEU). The

new A9782A adapter (with fiber-based GigE) and the A9784A adapter (with copper-based

GigE) provide the following benefits:

•A single adapter combining 2 Gbit/s Fibre Channel mass storage connectivity and

1000Base-SX or Base-T Gigabit Ethernet networking connectivity.

•Higher port density for I/O slot–constrained systems.

•Higher levels of failover protection, because two multi-function adapters have no single

point of failure. The same level of failover protection would require four single-port I/O

adapters (2 Fibre Channel and 2 Gigabit Ethernet) that would consume twice the

number of I/O slots.

The adapters also fully support HP Serviceguard and PCI-X/PCI online addition and

replacement (OLAR).

•PCI-X I/O adapters that are fully backward compatible with PCI 2.2 I/O slots.

•Flexibility for implementing Virtual Partition (vPars) configurations.

Figure 1 HP PCI-X 2 Gbit/s Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet

Multi-Function Adapter (A9782A shown)

Introduction

Both the A9782A and A9784A adapters offer the same level of performance and are

designed with the following advanced features.

The Fibre Channel port in each adapter:

•runs at either 200 MB/s half-duplex or 400 MB/s full duplex data rates.

•provides boot / dump support and auto speed sensing.

•supports 2 to 200 meter LC-to-LC duplex multimode fibre-optic cable and of course

LC-to-SC conversion cables.

•scales up to 16 million SAN nodes.

•operates in full switched fabric Fibre Channel (FC-SW) or FC-AL-2, FC-FLA, FC-PLDA,

and FC-PI architectures.

The Gigabit Ethernet port in each adapter:

•maximizes server CPU efficiency and increases performance through TCP,UDP, and IP

checksum protocol off loading.

•increases network flexibility through support for virtual LANs (VLANs).

•increases throughput through use of HP auto port aggregation (APA) or

•improves reliability and failover through the LAN Monitor capability of HP APA.

•is available in a choice of either a 1000 Base-SX version using multi-mode fiber

supporting distances of up to 550m or a 1000Base-T version using CAT5 or better UTP

cable supporting distances of up to 100m.

HP rp8400 servers with Server Expansion Units (SEU) like the one used in this

demonstration are highly dependable, adaptable, and efficient midrange servers for the

data center. The results in this paper show that the A9782A and A9784A adapters installed

in a server expansion unit like the one on the rp8400 increase your server and data

network efficiency while lowering your total cost of ownership.

PCI-X 2 Gigabit Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet Performance Test Results

PCI-X 2 Gigabit Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet

Performance Test Results

The Gigabit Ethernet port performance on the A9782A and A9784A was measured with

the following traffic types:

•Transmit (Tx) using netperf with socket size of 128K bytes and message size of 32K

bytes

•Receive (Rx) using netperf with socket size of 128K bytes and message size of 32K bytes

•Bidirectional (BD) running the Tx and Rx tests concurrently

The Fibre Channel port performance on the A9782A and A9784A was measured with the

following traffic types:

•Read (Rd) using diskbench with block size of 128K bytes

•Write (Wr) using diskbench with block size of 128K bytes

•Bidirectional (BD) running the Rd and Wr tests concurrently

The following charts show the overall performance of one PCI-X multi-function 2 Gigabit

Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet adapter in each 1, 2, or 4-cell, 16-way rp8400 with

Server Expansion Unit (SEU). In the enclosed charts:

•the Gigabit Ethernet throughput numbers are shown in Megabits per second, and

•the Fibre Channel throughput numbers are shown in Megabytes per second.

For each measured traffic type (for example, GigE Tx), the results for that traffic type are

shown alongside a comparison of that traffic type when running in conjunction with the

adjacent port running in bidirectional mode (for example, GigE Tx plus Fibre Channel

bidirectional). These comparisons basically show a single port compared to both ports

operating at the same time. The results of PCI-66 testing are also described though not

shown in graphs.

The following charts can be used to compare performance when 1, 2, and 4 cells are

configured per partition.

Throughput

GigE Traffic Alone Compared to GigE Traffic in Conjunction with FC

Bidirectional

Figure 2 PCI-X GigE Rx Performance Compared to: Rx + FC BD

Figure 2 shows PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Receive (Rx) performance. With 1, 2, or 4 cells

configured, the following throughput rates were achieved:

•Receive throughput on the GigE port with no Fiber channel traffic on a 1 cell partition is

an excellent 929 Mbits/sec. As the partition size is increased by adding up to 3 more

cells, receive throughput shows no significant drop in performance. A similar pattern

emerges when GigE receive and FC bidirectional are combined. GigE receive

throughput is 837 Mbits/sec with no significant change as partition size is increased.

•When tested in a PCI-66 slot, the performance results for receive only throughput are

identical to PCI-X performance. When GigE receive and FC bidirectional traffic are

combined, PCI-66 performance is 585 Mbits/sec with no significant change as

partition size increases. The decreased performance seen when both ports are active on

the A9782A/A9784A is a result of the bandwidth limitation of the PCI-66 technology

and is not due to a limitation in the adapter.

929 924

837

921

830

837

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Rx Rx + FC BD

Mbits/sec

1 Cell

2 Cells

4 Cells

Throughput

Figure 3 PCI-X GigE Tx Performance Compared to: Tx + FC BD

Figure 3 shows PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Transmit (Tx) performance. With 1, 2, or 4 cells

configured, the following throughput rates were achieved:

•Transmit throughput on the GigE port with no Fiber channel traffic on a 1 cell partition is

900 Mbits/sec. As the partition size is increased by adding up to 3 additional cells,

transmit throughput decreases to 868 Mbits/sec.

A similar pattern emerges when GigE transmit and FC bidirectional are combined.

GigE transmit throughput is 700 Mbits/sec on a 1 cell partition and decreases to 638

Mbits/sec as partition size is increased to 4 cells.

•When tested in a PCI-66 slot, the performance results for transmit only throughput

showed no decrease in performance when compared to PCI-X. When GigE transmit

and FC bidirectional traffic are combined, PCI-66 performance is 440 Mbits/sec with

no significant change as partition size increases. The decreased performance seen

when both ports are active on the A9782A/A9784A is a result of the bandwidth

limitation of the PCI-66 technology and is not due to a limitation in the adapter.

890

658

868

638

900

700

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Tx Tx + FC BD

Mbits/sec

1 Cell

2 Cells

4 Cells

Throughput

Figure 4 PCI-X GigE BD Performance Compared to: BD + FC BD

Figure 4 shows PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Bidirectional (BD) performance. With 1, 2, or 4

cells configured, the following throughput rates were achieved:

•Bidirectional throughput on the GigE port with no Fiber channel traffic on a 1 cell

partition is 1250 Mbits/sec. As the partition size is increased by adding up to 3 more

cells, bidirectional throughput decreases to 1175 Mbits/sec. A similar pattern emerges

when GigE bidirectional and FC bidirectional are combined. GigE bidirectional

throughput is 884 Mbits/sec on a 1 cell partition and decreases to 865 Mbits/sec as

partition size is increased to 4 cells. You see a more significant decrease on the

A9782A/A9784A when both ports are active due to the inherent bandwidth limitations

of the PCI-X technology when both links are carrying full bidirectional traffic.

•When tested in a PCI-66 slot the performance results for bidirectional only throughput

showed no decrease in performance when compared to PCI-X. When GigE

bidirectional and FC bidirectional traffic are combined, PCI-66 performance is 592

Mbits/sec with no significant change as partition size increases. The decreased

performance seen when both ports are active on the A9782A/A9784A is a result of the

bandwidth limitation of the PCI-66 technology and is not due to a limitation in the

adapter.

884

1206

881 865

1250 1175

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

BD BD + FC BD

Mbits/sec

1 Cell

2 Cells

4 Cells

Throughput

FC Traffic Alone Compared to FC Traffic in Conjunction with GigE

Bidirectional

Figure 5 PCI-X Fibre Channel Read Performance

Figure 5 shows PCI-X Fibre Channel Read (Rd) performance. With 1, 2, or 4 cells

configured, the following throughput rates were achieved:

•Read throughput on the FC port with no GigE traffic on a 1 cell partition is an excellent

191 MBytes/sec. As the partition size is increased by adding up to 3 more cells, read

throughput shows no drop in performance. A similar pattern emerges when FC read

and GigE bidirectional are combined. FC read throughput is 191 MBytes/sec with no

change as partition size is increased.

•When tested in a PCI-66 slot, the performance results for read only throughput are

identical to PCI-X performance. When FC read and GigE bidirectional traffic are

combined, PCI-66 performance is 157 MBytes/sec with no change as partition size

increases.

191 191191 191 191 191

100

150

200

250

Rd Rd + GigE BD

MBytes/sec

1 Cell

2 Cells

4 Cells

Throughput

Figure 6 PCI-X Fibre Channel Write Performance

Figure 6 shows PCI-X Fibre Channel Write (Wr) performance. With 1, 2, or 4 cells

configured, the following throughput rates were achieved:

•Write throughput on the FC port with no GigE traffic on a 1 cell partition is an excellent

184 MBytes/sec. As the partition size is increased by adding up to 3 more cells, write

throughput decreases to 168 MBytes/sec. A similar pattern emerges when FC write and

GigE bidirectional are combined. FC write throughput is 160 MBytes/sec on a 1 cell

partition and decreases to 143 MBytes/sec as partition size is increased to 4 cells.

•When tested in a PCI-66 slot, the performance results for write only throughput showed

no decrease in performance when compared to PCI-X. When FC write and GigE

bidirectional traffic are combined, PCI-66 performance is 117 MBytes/sec. As you

increase the partition size by adding up to 3 more cells, write throughput decreases to

90 MBytes/sec. The decreased performance seen when both ports are active on the

A9782A/A9784A is a result of the bandwidth limitation of the PCI-66 technology and

is not due to a limitation in the adapter.

184

160

169

145

168

143

100

120

140

160

180

200

Wr Wr + GigE BD

MBytes/sec

1 Cell

2 Cells

4 Cells

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