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StorNext File System Tuning
The Distributed LAN (Disk Proxy) Networks
StorNext File System Tuning Guide 18
SNFS External API 0
The SNFS External API might be useful in some scenarios because it
offers programmatic use of special SNFS performance capabilities such as
affinities, preallocation, and quality of service. For more information, see
the
Quality of Service chapter of the StorNext User’s Guide API Guide.
The Distributed LAN (Disk Proxy) Networks
As with any client/server protocol, SNFS Distributed LAN performance
is subject to the limitations of the underlying network. Therefore, it is
strongly recommended that you use dedicated networks for Distributed
LAN traffic, to avoid contention with other network traffic. Gigabit
(1000BaseT) Ethernet is recommended. Neither TCP offload nor jumbo
frames are required.
Hardware Configuration 0
Dedicated networks can help provide the most predictable, deterministic
level of performance. However, if shared network service is required
(perhaps for peak NIC bandwidth utilization,) network contention could
result. Network contention can lead to poor or inconsistent Distributed
LAN performance, poor or inconsistent performance of other distributed
applications, and, depending on their resiliency, intermittent failures of
those applications.
SNFS Distributed LAN can easily fill several Gigabit Ethernets with data,
so take special care when selecting and configuring the switches used to
interconnect SNFS Distributed LAN clients and servers. Ensure that your
network switches have enough internal bandwidth to handle all of the
anticipated traffic between all Distributed LAN clients and servers
connected to them.
A network switch that is dropping packets will cause TCP
retransmissions. This can be easily observed on both Linux and Windows
platforms by using the netstat -s command while proxy I/O is in
progress.
Reducing the TCP window size used by Distributed LAN might also help
with an oversubscribed network switch. The Windows client Disk Proxy
tab and the Linux dpserver file contain the tuning parameter for the TCP
window size. Note that Distributed LAN server remounts are required
after changing this parameter.