Re: [Networker] Server Adapter performance benefits

On Mon, 2 Sep 2002 13:05:37 +0200, Riaan van Niekerk
<riaanvn AT PUKNET.PUK.AC DOT ZA> wrote:

>Has anyone had any success with improving backup performance by
implementing "server" network interfaces in their backup environments?

What do you mean by "server" network interfaces ?

>
>We are looking at acquiring two Intel Pro/100 S to offload the CPU's of
our backup server.

But your load averages further down your CPU's are not maxed out.

>
>NIC's like these are usually pitched as encryption accelerators, but do
they add anything in a backup environment in terms of performance (where
encryption is not a requirement)?
>
>Our backup server (NetWorker 6.1.2 on Red Hat 7.1) runs at the following
load average during the backup window.
>
>08:01:00 PM       CPU     %user     %nice   %system     %idle
>08:11:00 PM       all     13.26      0.14     46.65     39.94
>
>As long as the clients keep streaming (we have a few big slow NetWare
clients), the drive can maintain 14-15MB/s.

which is probably the best you will get from it.

>
>Server parallelism is at 8 (I have tried higher parallelism, e.g. 10, but
the load average just increases, with no noticeable improvement in
througput)
>
>Our H/W config is as follows
>Compaq Proiant 3000, 2x550MHz P3, 512MB RAM, 3x36GB Ultra160 on 3200 Raid
Adapter
>2x100MB/s NICs (Intel 3210), switched
>Library: Overland Data LXN2000, SDLT220 on Adaptec AHA2940U2W
>
>More info:
>- the server never swaps
>- GigE currently is not an option on this server (2x100MB are more than
enough for this config), as is upgrading the server (CPU's) itself.
>- at one stage, we had 2 extra Intel NICs, but these did not improve
throughput, the bottleneck being the tape/server

As you say the bottle neck looks like the tape drive although this will
closely be followed by the 2 network interfaces.

>
>Your thoughts would be appreciated, also with regards to dual-port NIC's
on multiple bus servers.
>
>TIA
>
>Riaan
>
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