Re: iSCSI question

On Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 04:58:01PM +0100, Dario Cinquetti wrote:
hi all,

We are looking for info and products iSCSI based.
The target is a low cost sort of SAN, in multivendor site.
Aix has an iSCSI/ethernet card, Gbit/eth card, a driver (AIX 5.2/5.3).
Found some references about NetApps connections (Tcp/ip sendspace,
jumboframes etc)

iSCSI is unknown to all the CE i know... i've found noone in Italy
with actual project in field..

any of you have experience to share? caveats or useful literature?

thanks in advance

We experimented with the iSCSI initiator only on AIX 5.2, and a SANRAD Vswitch
connected to several 'SAN' connected boxes. While it did connect and we
where able to use it, the throughput was terrible. After consulting with
the vendor (SANRAD does not support Jumbos), then with AIX support, we found
that it was an internal driver/buffer problem. The driver support people
indicated that jumbos are 'expected', and that if were to turn them on (even
if they weren't supported by the SANRAD), our throughput would be considerably
better. We were only getting about 10MB/s during our testing, which was
completely unacceptable. We had to turn the testing equipment back to the
vendor, so we were never able to test AIX support's suggestion.

When we connected the setup to a Microsoft server, we saw 60-80MB/s (without
jumbos).

I would suggest before buying anything that you ask the vendor for a
evaluation of their 'recommended' setup. They should be able to stand
behind their numbers. Make sure that you let them know up front that you
are running AIX and what version you are running. I have had a few vendors
walk away (even IBM themselves) because they don't consider AIX a supported
platform.

Just some thoughts, (2cents worth).

cheers,

bob

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