Best Tuning Practices for Power Vault MD3600 Series Storage Arrays

8/2/2019 Best Tuning Practices for Power Vault MD3600 Series Storage Arrays

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MD3600i Series ArrayBest Tuning Pract ices

A Dell Technical Whit e Paper

Dell PowerVaultSeries


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MD3600i Series Array Best Tuning Pract ices

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THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL

ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR

IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

2010-2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduct ion of t his material in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact

Dell.

Del l, the DELL logo, and the DELL badge, PowerConnect, and PowerVaul t are t rademarks of Dell Inc.

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities

claiming the marks and names or t heir products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary int erest in

t rademarks and trade names other than its own.

March 2011


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ContentsIntroduction ............ ............. ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ... 2Configuration ........... ............. ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ... 2Recommendations ... ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............. ............ ............ ..... 2

NDIS Only Single Adapter Port .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 2NDIS Only Two Adapter Ports .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... .... 3Hardware Initi ator Single Port. .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .. 3Hardware Initiator Dual Port ......................................................................................... 6

Conclusion ............. ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ..... 6


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IntroductionThis paper out li nes recommended best tuning pract ices for Windows Microsoft iSCSI Init iat or

configurati ons connect ing to the MD36xxi array. This paper focuses only on implementat ions that use

the Microsoft virt ual miniport implementation. Hardware init iators that provide their own hardware

Storport miniport implementation are beyond the scope of t his paper and wil l not be covered.

Therefore, the informat ion t hat f ollows is based on typical customer Windows conf igurations that runon NDIS drivers only, or NDIS driver implementat ions t hat also provide iSCSI off load capabil it ies. The

network cards used to generate this informat ion are t he 10GBase-T Intel Server AT adapter, and the

Dell Broadcom 57710 10GBase-T adapt er.

ConfigurationThe host configurati on used in t his report is an R910 with 32GB of memory instal led; t wo 10GBase-T

PCIe GEN2 x8 adapters install ed in PCIe GEN2 x8 elect ri cal slots; and Windows 2008 Standard SP2

instal led. Host and MD36xxi connect to a Dell Power Connect 8024 10GBase-T swi tch with j umbo frames

enabled. Defaul t set t ings are used on Microsoft iSCSI Soft ware Init iat or.

RecommendationsThe foll owing recommendati ons are based on a single host connectivit y solut ion that has one or t wo

10GBase-T single port network adapters install ed, and a duplex MD36xxi confi gurati on. The host is a

Windows 2008 Standard server wi th SP2 and MD36xxi mult i-path host soft ware installed.

NDIS Only Single Adapter Port

For a single net work adapter, four iSCSI connecti ons are recommended between host and arrayone

connection per array host port , two connect ions per array controll er. The recommend MTU size is the

standard Ethernet f rame size of 1518 bytes; j umbo frames are not recommended. If you are using Inteland your system support s input / output accelerat ion t echnology (IOAT), we recommend that this

feature and the IOAT drivers be installed. We also recommend that you enable RSS in t he operating

system, conf igure the number of RSS queues on the adapter t o be equivalent to the number of CPU

cores on the system, and set t he receive and transmit buff er size to maximum values. Use the default

value for all ot her set t ings. For Broadcom, we recommend that Chimney and RSS support be enabled

and default adapter set t ings be used. For a single 10GBase-T port implement ation, f our iSCSI

connections are recommended between host and target .

8024

SW

R910N0

N1

C0

C1

0

1

0

1


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NDIS Only Two Adapter Ports

For a two network adapter confi guration, f our iSCSI connect ions are recommended between host and

arrayone connection per array host port , t wo connections per array control ler . The recommend MTU

size is the standard Ethernet frame size of 1518 bytes; j umbo frames are not recommended. If you are

using Intel and your system supports IOAT, we recommend that t his feature and the IOAT drivers be

instal led. We also recommend that you enable RSS in the operati ng system, configure the number ofRSS queues on the adapter to be equivalent to the number of CPU cores on the system, and set the

receive and t ransmit buffer size to maximum values. Use the default value for al l ot her sett ings. For

Broadcom, we recommend t hat Chimney and RSS support be enabled and default adapter set t ings be

used. For a t wo 10GBase-T port implement ation, four iSCSI connections are recommended between

host and target.

Hardware Ini t iator Single Port

For a single net work adapter, two iSCSI connecti ons are recommended bet ween host and arrayone

connection per array host port and one connection per array cont roll er. Enable j umbo frames on the

host , switch, and array. Set the host adapter MTU to 4500 bytes, and set switch and MD36xxi MTU size

to a value greater t han 4500 byte (a 9000 byte MTU size is recommended for bot h switch and array).

The Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager can be used to confi gure j umbo frames on the MD36xxi.

R910N0

N1

C0

C1

0

1

0

1

8024

SWR910

C0

C1

N0

N1

0

1

0

1


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To configure j umbo frames on the array, open a management connection wit h the array, select the

Setup tab on the main screen, and then click Configure iSCSI Host Ports. The following management

screen displays:


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Click the Advanced Host Port Settings but ton in the lower left of t he window to display the fol lowing

configuration window:

In the Jumbo Frames section, check the Enable j umbo frames box and set the MTU size to 9000

bytes/ frame. Click the OK button. Perform t his operat ion on each MD36xxi iSCSI host port .


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Hardware Init iator Dual Port

For a two network adapter confi guration, f our iSCSI connect ions are recommended between host and

arrayone connect ion per array host port , two connect ions per array cont roll er. Enable j umbo frames

on the host , switch, and array. Set the host adapter MTU to 4500 bytes, and set switch and MD36xxi

MTU size t o a value greater t han 4500 byte (a 9000 byte MTU size is recommended for bot h switch and

array). The Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager can be used to configure j umbo frames on the MD36xxi.

ConclusionIn general, when conf iguring MS iSCSI Init iator on a system running NDIS dri vers on a 10GBase-T

adapter, we recommend no more than four iSCSI sessions between host and array. This wi ll provide

adequate st reaming capabil it y between host and array without overwhelming the host adapter port .

For iSCSI hardware init iat ors, t he number of iSCSI connections between host and array can be fewer f or

the single adapter port case. These guideli nes are meant to provide a general confi gurat ion t opology

based on a typi cal 10GBase-T host connection profil e, but every sit uati on is unique and may require a

dif ferent set of guidelines. If t his is the case, contact Dell Technical Support for further assistance.

8024

SW

R910N0

N1

C0

C1

0

1

0

1

Documents

Best Tuning Practices for Power Vault MD3600 Series Storage Arrays