NFS Performance Tuning for HP-UX 11.0 and 11i Systems

nfs performance tuning for hp-ux 11.0 and 11i systems page 7

Notes:

Page 7July 22, 2002

Measure Network Throughput

• Generally speaking, the higher your network throughput,

the better your NFS performance will be

• Eliminate the NFS layer from consideration (if a

throughput problem exists between an NFS client and

server, the problem should affect any IP protocol)

Ø ttcp (http://ftp.arl.mil/ftp/pub/ttcp)

Ø netperf (http://www.netperf.org)

network

Once the layout of the physical network is understood, the next step in validating

your network is to measure the throughput of the connection separating the client

and server. Generally speaking, the faster your network throughput, the better your

NFS performance will be.

When testing the performance of the network for NFS purposes, it is essential to

eliminate the NFS layer from consideration by simply testing the network transport

layer using non-NFS protocols. If a throughput problem exists between an NFS

client and server, the problem would affect any network-based application, not just

NFS. Similarly, when attempting to characterize network throughput, it is important

to eliminate any impact of the local filesystems. It is therefore necessary to select

measurement tools that are not dependent upon NFS or other filesystem resources.

Several tools exist to help system and network administrators measure the

throughput of their network connections. ttcp and netperf are two of the most

prominent tools.