Performance and Recommended Use of AB290A Combination 2-Port U320 SCSI / 2-Port Gigabit Ethernet Cards

2 SCSI Ports and 2 GbE Ports Combined Traffic Performance
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2 SCSI Ports and 2 GbE Ports Combined Traffic
Performance
Using both U320 SCSI ports and both 1000Base-T ports on the AB290A card
simultaneously works very well for applications such as web servers or file servers. The
amount of networking traffic performed by this type of application regulates or controls the
amount of disk traffic. Using all four ports on the AB290A works exceptionally well for those
deployments which require more connectivity and less bandwidth per port. Performance
using all four ports concurrently on the AB290A is highly dependent on the unique demands
of applications running on the system. All four ports running concurrently at base rate would
require significantly more bandwidth than is available on a single PCIX-133 bus.
Bidirectional Traffic Performance
The AB290A maintained a balance of transmit and receive throughput during bidirectional
(two-way) traffic tests. Results for Bidirectional traffic varied depending on the types of traffic
combined. Most applications and system workloads do not generate sustained bidirectional
traffic patterns.
• Bidirectional Ethernet only traffic through a single port achieved an exceptional 1.89
gigabits per second on the rx4640. Two ports of bidirectional Ethernet only traffic
achieved an exceptional 3.77 gigabits per second of throughput.
• Combined disk read and write traffic through a single U320 SCSI port is excellent --
achieving:
— 251 MB/s on the rx4640 with no Ethernet traffic, and
— greater than 215 MB/s while any type of Ethernet traffic was occurring on a single
active 1000Base-T port.
• Combined disk read and write traffic on two U320 SCSI ports reaches an excellent 374
MB/s of throughput.
• Bidirectional Ethernet traffic through a single port while running maximum sustained
concurrent disk traffic varied from 1.48 to 1.84 gigabits per second depending on the
type of disk traffic occurring on a single active U320 SCSI port. Most importantly the
1000 Base-T port maintained a balance of transmit and receive throughput even with
the added stress of the disk traffic.
Sustained bidirectional Ethernet traffic on all 4 ports doubles the bandwidth requirements of
the 1000Base-T ports being actively used and pushes the total needed bandwidth closer to
or beyond the limits imposed by PCIX-133 bus and bridge technologies.