Upgrade to IB or 10Gb ?

oxyi · Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:04 pm

Hi there,

Got some upgrade questions/issues need some input on.

Currently we have 2 nodes Starwind server, which I have a 4-ports NIC doing sync and iSCSI, and I am going to replace that NIC with either a 10gb 2-ports or IB 2-ports NIC..

1. Need some thoughts on whether to go with IB or 10Gb setup
2. All the server is on 2008 r2, not sure if IB is supported on 2008 r2, maybe only 2012, then how would I go about upgrading my OS with Starwind in it.
3. Planning to upgrade my 2008 r2 hyper-v cluster to 2012 r2. As far my upgrade concern, how should I go about it ? Do I use cluster migratino to 2012 first, and down all the VMs and upgrade NIC and OS and starwind? how about all the targeting info ?

Thanks!

Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:43 pm

10 GbE (or 40/56) as we don't do native IB at least yet. IP-over-IB just sucks

oxyi · Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:59 pm

is that on the roadmap by any chance ? I know it's slower with the overhead but problem wise ? And it's going to be faster than 10Gb right ? thanks

Sat Sep 13, 2014 1:17 pm

Keeping in mind still very small % of IB adoption and 40/56 Gbps Ethernet becoming a commodity next few years (Intel is planning to put [brand] on their server boards) I think chances are VERY low. Yes native IB support is on the read map but we keep re-scheduling and re-shifting priority for it all the time.

oxyi · Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:21 pm

wow you ain't lying when you said it's bad..

I just did a test with V8, created a target locally and attached to a client.

Using ATTO to benchmark, I couldn't even get pass the Gb speed.. best I am getting is 120MB/sec

When you said bad, this is what you meant ? , write never pass over 20MB/sec

Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:57 pm

Well, should not be THAT bad but... 40 Gb IB does @ the same level as 10 Gb Ethernet. That's what we see (one of the customers is doing a performance related whitpaper so we'll be able to share full deck of numbers soon). So keeping in mind 10 GbE is cheap (and previous generation Intel cards are cheap as dirt so maybe sub-$100 on eBay) going with IB has less and less sense.

oxyi wrote:wow you ain't lying when you said it's bad..

I just did a test with V8, created a target locally and attached to a client.

Using ATTO to benchmark, I couldn't even get pass the Gb speed.. best I am getting is 120MB/sec

When you said bad, this is what you meant ? , write never pass over 20MB/sec