ESXi

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  • 1.  Extremely slow network performance

    Posted Feb 22, 2012 02:49 PM

    Hi all,

    I already checked tonns of sources and threads about similar issues but unfortunately none of the given solutions solved my issue. Here is my problem:

    I build a relatively simple lab box with the hardware below:

    Intel DB65AL Motherboard

    Core i3 2100

    16GB RAM

    Intel Pro/1000 CT NIC

    I deactivead the onboard NIC and installed ESXi on an USB stick which worked quite well. Currently there are no harddiscs installed in the host machine. For testing purposes I installed a FreeNAS system, added a NFS share and configured the ESXi to use this as a datastore. Unfortunately I found the machine to be incredible slow which seems to be caused by a poor network performance. I have already learned that the management network is quite slow but I think the datastore connecetion should be much faster than 3mb/s. In fact sometimes it reaches up to 9mb/s but that's all.

    I noticed that downloading files from the ESXi datastore to a third computer (using vShereClient) is very fast but uploading takes about 30 times longer.

    I already checked the NAS system for I/O issues but using CFIS I get between 30 and 60 mb/s so that shouldm't be the problem. I tested the NFS share on the NAS by connecting it to some other linux boxes and copying some files and got good results. I even booted the VM-Host with a linux live CD and tested the connection to the NFS share as well. The results were fine too. So I suppose the issue must be somewhere in the ESXi configuration but I can't find it.

    I checked the NIC configuration but it shows 1000/full as it should. I used ESXTOP to monitor the network but I can't see how to resolve that issue. Has anyone ever had something similar before and was able to resolve it? As I was able to eliminate a hardware problem I don't want to buy a new NIC.

    Thanks in advance. Please let me know i you need some more information.

    Besr regards

    Daniel



  • 2.  RE: Extremely slow network performance

    Posted Feb 22, 2012 04:28 PM

    Hi

    FreeNAS (FreeBSD) have "bug" in NFS

    Look here: http://christopher-technicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/06/speeding-up-freebsds-nfs-on-zfs-for-esx.html

    You use iSCSI on FreenNAS or NFS on OpenFiler rather...



  • 3.  RE: Extremely slow network performance

    Posted Feb 22, 2012 07:50 PM

    Good find vlho,

    The consensus seems to be that there isn't much of a benefit of NFS over iSCSI or vice-versa, so in this case it seems like iSCSI is your best bet.