Performance/Network Throughput

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Benchmark Description[edit]

This benchmark tests throughput over 10 Gbit network connection which can be achieved in a virtualized environments, testing two traffic flow directions:

  • from VM/CT to physical client
  • from physical client to VM/CT

Implementation[edit]

To measure network throughput standard performance test netperf is used. Host with VM/CT and physical client are connected directly using cross cable (without switches, possible other traffic effects etc.)

Testbed Configuration[edit]

Hardware:

  • Server: 4xHexCore Intel Xeon (2.66 GHz), 32 GB RAM, Intel 82598EB 10-Gigabit network card
  • Client: 4xHexCore Intel Xeon (2.136 GHz), 32 GB RAM, Intel 82598EB 10-Gigabit network card
  • Network: 10Gbit direct server <-> client optical connection

Platform:

  • Virtualization Software: ESXi4.1upd1, XenServer5.6fp1, HyperV (R2), OpenVZ (RH6) 2.6.32-042test006.1.x86_64
  • Guest OS: Centos 5.5 x86_64

Software and Tunings:

  • netperf v2.4.5
  • one VM/CT with netperf configured with 4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM
  • where it was possible, we set offloading & hardware checksumming (gro, gso,etc...) and jumbo frames (MTU=9000) features
  • netperf run string:
    • Server: netserver -p PORT (5 instances)
    • Client: netperf -p PORT -HOST -t TCP_SENDFILE -l 300 (several instanes)
  • Firewall was turned off
  • All other tunings were left at default values

Benchmark Results[edit]

10gbit throughput v2.png

Summary[edit]

  • OpenVZ provides near native 10Gbit network throughput: 9.70Gbit on receive and 9.87Gbit on send
  • OpenVZ is the only virtualization solution capable to achieve native 10Gbit throughput in both scenarios
  • OpenVZ demonstrates >2x times greater performance on receive compared to hypervisors (x2 times faster than ESXi4.1 and x5 times faster than XenServer5.6)

TODO[edit]

  • record and provide CPU usage details to outline additional low CPU usage in this test case