Contents
Benchmark Description
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
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
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
Summary
- 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
- record and provide CPU usage details to outline additional low CPU usage in this test case