iSCSI Testing with MS iSCSI Initiator

[dnsplus]

Ok, lets pop this cherry and get things rolling ...

I started by formatting a volume on the Snap, and making it an iSCSI volume (roughly 100GB). The iSCSI name is automatically created by the Snap, and it is this name that the client initiator will connect to.

Note, the Snap can be an iSNS Server, which is a resource location service on the network that allows clients to find various shared iSCSI volumes across the network (think DNS for iSCSI). This isnt strictly required, but is helpful in a complex environment.

You must download and install the iSCSI Initiator components from MS, which can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...5-befd1319f825

There are some good guides out there for what to do with the initiator once its installed. Break out your googlefinger and have some fun.

Ok, back to my particular test. The server I tried this with only has 100Mb adapters, so don't expect much in the way of performance in this article. Remember that max wire-speed of FastEthernet is about 12MB/s when there is little, to no protocol overhead.

Test System:

IBM eServer xSeries 300 1U server
Dual OnBoard Pro/100 FastEthernet adapters
PIII 933Mhz Processor
1GB Reg ECC PC133 SDRAM
LSI MegaRAID IDE 100 PCI raid controller
2 x 20GB ATA100 IDE Drives (RAID1)
Windows Server 2003 SP2

Performance Comparison:

20GB IDE Burst Speed Random Access Max Transfer Min Transfer CPU Usage Avg Read

8MB / Quick 49.3MB/s 12.3ms 40MB/s 16MB/s 8% +/- 2% 32.1MB/s
32MB / Long 49.3MB/s 12.4ms 40MB/s 14.8MB/s 8% +/- 2% 32.2MB/s

100Gb iSCSI

8MB / Quick 11.1MB/s 9.9ms 11MB/s 9MB/s 18% +/- 2% 10.6MB/s
32MB / Long 11.1MB/s 8.4ms 11MB/s 8.4MB/s 22% +/- 2% 10.7MB/s


Like I said ... dont expect stellar performance with a 100Mb network.

I did some performance testing with file copies between local disk volumes. The above transfer rates are indicative of transfer speeds, but what is interesting is that the network utilization averaged 97% during the transfers. That is something that is rarely seen with data transfers.

I am going to setup some testing with another server that has a GigE adpater and post the results.

But, for the purposes of the test:

iSCSI initiator was easy to setup and configure on the Initiating Client.
iSCSI Volumes are easy to setup via the GOS on the Snap.
The client sees the disk as a local block device, just like it does disks installed in the server.

[Phoenix32]

Have you got a link to a GOOD short and sweet how-to for setting up Win XP Pro?

I am looking forward to your report on Gb LAN and trying this out...

[dnsplus]

Phoenix ... this will get your rolling:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/howdoi/?p=107

performance on GigE seems impressive, but when 2 targets are in use on the Snap, both being fully hammered, the performance of the GigE falls way off. Its not common to have all the targets fully pegged at the same time, so its a limitation that, more than likely, you wont run into.