QLogic Adapters & Virtualized Environments

Editor's Notes

• #6: Traffic isolation per vPort for enhanced security and dedicated bandwidth
• #13: Superior Business Scalability. For high throughput applications, the QLogic 8200 Series Converged Network Adapter delivers nearly twice the performance compared to the Emulex adapter (OCe10102-F) in Linux®. As business grows and more ports are added, the QLogic adapter’s throughput scales by 96 percent compared to only 25 percent for the Emulex adapter.Better Application Performance. The QLogic Converged Network Adapter delivers 54 percent more performance efficiency (IOPS divided by CPU percentage) in Oracle and Microsoft Exchange 2007 environments under typical workloads compared to the Emulex adapter. At line rate for NIC, the QLogic adapter delivers 60 percent higher efficiency in Windows® and 120 percent higher efficiency in Linux.In a Microsoft exchange 2007 environment, the QLogic adapter has a performance efficiency advantage of 54 percent over Emulex and 189 percent over the Intel software FCoE initiator. In a Microsoft exchange 2003 environment, the QLogic adapter’s performance efficiency advantage is 33 percent over the Brocade adapter and 295 percent over Intel’s software FCoE initiator.In Hyper-V environments, the QLogic 2500 series 8Gb Fibre Channel adapter offers up to 48 percent higher IOPS and throughput compared to the Emulex LightPulse 12000 series adapter. QLogic 2500 series adapter IOPS are up to 48 percent higher than Emulex when performing sequential read operations.QLogic 2500 series adapter IOPS are up to 18 percent higher than Emulex when performing sequential write operations. QLogic 2500 series adapter IOPS are up to 40 percent higher than Emulex when performing sequential read/write operations.The QLogic 2500 series adapter demonstrates up to 44 percent superior VM scalability than the Emulex LightPulse 12000 series adapter. The QLogic adapter continues to scale as VM workloads are increased from two to eight.
• #15: The 8200 Series adapters support a host of features that make them unique in the industry. QLogic’sVmflex features are advanced virtualization capabilitiese that include industry-standard support for SR-IOV, as well as upcoming/future standards like VEB, VEPA, and VNTag. These adapters also support a new QLogic-unique feature called “switch agnostic” NIC partitioning or NPAR. NPAR is similar to SR-IOV, but, unlike SR-IOV, doesn’t require any special OS support to enable it. With NPAR, each physical 10GbE port presents itself to the server as four virtual ports. The end user can designate each virtual port as a NIC, FCoE, or iSCSI function and is able to allocate a specific amount of guaranteed bandwidth to each virtual port. These assignments can be done using QLogic-provided pre-boot utilities, QCC, or OS tools (i.e. Vmwareplugin). What makes this feature truly unique to QLogic is that it works when the adapter is attached to any 10GbE switch! This is in contrast to other implementations in the market now that offer similar functionality but require the end user to attach their CNA to one specific switch model to enable the feature.
• #16: "ESG research indicates that just over 30 percent of server virtualization users cited that they will soon have 25 or more VMs per physical host, dramatically increasing I/O traffic," said Bob Laliberte, senior analyst for ESG. "QLogic developed VMflex and NPAR I/O virtualization technology specifically to handle these increased loads and enable enterprises to enhance performance and network utilization, while simultaneously reducing complexity." (1)The demand and complexity of I/O traffic has increased significantly in the virtualization era. If not properly managed, I/O can negatively impact application performance and limit the number of virtual machines (VMs) deployed. I/O bottlenecks and memory performance issues can be reduced by giving VMs direct access to hardware I/O devices, eliminating the overhead of embedded software switches and improving system performance while reducing system power consumption and providing greater cost-savings. (1)"As enterprises transition to virtualized and cloud-based environments, virtual I/O is a primary consideration in any company's IT strategy," said Amit Vashi, vice president of marketing, Host Solutions Group, QLogic. "With the ability to create multiple partitions--each supporting TCP/IP, FCoE or iSCSI--and take advantage of flexible bandwidth provisioning on our 10GbE converged network adapters, VMflex reduces adapter, cabling, switch port, and management costs and gives customers more options in choosing Ethernet switches. VMflex enables the application of quality-of-service (QoS) to virtual ports, improving I/O performance while maintaining a low total cost-of-ownership." (1)Among enterprises currently implementing virtualization, business-critical applications are now beginning to come into the spotlight. Enterprises are most willing to virtualize Web, database and email applications. But more than one-third of them are planning to implement virtualization within the next year for business-critical applications such as HR, accounting and ERP, showing that they are becoming more used to the technology. (2)http://ir.qlogic.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=85695&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1622450&highlight=https://www4.symantec.com/mktginfo/whitepaper/Virt_and_Evolution_Cloud_Survey_060811.pdf
• #21: In addition to provisioning VMs, architecting a virtualized server requires: Provisioning hypervisor applications who’sPerformance is network bandwidth dependantNetwork bandwidth demand is dynamic in naturePerformance greatly affects the ability to deliver SLA commitmentsTo economically deploy complex environments resources must be efficiently used to their maximum extentThe flexibility to dynamically shift network bandwidth toWhere it is needed, When it is neededgreatly enhances resource efficiency To predictably and consistently deliver demanding SLA commitments in rapidly evolving conditions requires: Timely and precise control of network bandwidth QLogic’s NPAR QoS delivers on all counts!
• #22: ETS - Enhanced Transmission Selection Allocates Bandwidth between CNA and Ethernet SwitchETS is Configured at the Switch QLogic’s current implementation of ETS uses only two traffic classes, FCoE & NIC with a default allocation of 50/50 Each traffic class will get at least its configured minimum amount of bandwidth, any traffic class can use more bandwidth than it is assignedNPAR QoS Configuring per PortApplies only to Transmit Traffic on the NIC FunctionMinimum Bandwidth settingThis is a guaranteed amount of bandwidth available to a NIC FunctionSpecified as a percentage of the physical port’s NIC bandwidthThe sum of all the Minimum settings for the NIC Functions of a physical port must be less than or equal to 100%Maximum Bandwidth setting Determines the Maximum allowable bandwidth to a NIC FunctionSpecified as percentage of the physical port’s NIC bandwidthThe sum of all the Maximum settings for all the NIC Functions may exceed 100% of physical port ‘s bandwidthOversubscription: Allows the total Maximum Bandwidth to exceed the physical port’s actual bandwidth Each NIC Function can claim up to100% of a physical port’s bandwidth Allows unused bandwidth to be dynamically shifted to where it is needed, preventing wasted bandwidth.
• #23: Scenario:This backup Server has two single Port QLE3200 IEA adapters, each with 4 NIC functions.Each 10GE pipe is all dedicated to Ethernet Traffic.Consider the following conditions:Group A,B,C,D:The Minimum Bandwidth (Min) is 0% so there are no Guaranteed Bandwidth allocationsIf A, B, C are not transferring D may use all the Bandwidth; it’s Max 100%.If A, B, D are not transferring, C may use up to it’s Max which is 40% the Bandwidth, leaving 60% wasted.Group 1,2,3,4:The Minimum Bandwidth is 25% so each is Guaranteed up to at least ¼ the pipe.If 4 does not use it’s bandwidth, the other NPAR Nic’s may use up to their Max, 30%, leaving 10% wasted.
• #25: Issues with many 1GbE NIC’s per ServerIn today’s virtualized datacenters where 10GbE connectivity is still not commonplace, networking is typically based on large numbers of 1GbE physical connections that are used to isolate different types of traffic flows and to provide sufficient bandwidth. Provisioning a large number of GbE network adapters to accommodate peak bandwidth requirements has a number of shortcomings: Limited bandwidth: Flows from an individual source (virtual machine, vMotion interface, and so on) are limited and bound to the bandwidth of a single 1GbE interface even if more bandwidth is available within a teamExcessive complexity: Too many 1GbE adapters leads to complexity in cabling, management and human error Higher capital costs: requires more physical switch ports, including additional switches and rack space Lower utilization: Static bandwidth allocation to accommodate peak bandwidth for different traffic flows means poor average network bandwidth utilizationMoving to 10GbEProvides ample bandwidth for all the traffic flows to coexist and share the same physical 10GbE link. Flows that were limited to the bandwidth of a single 1GbE link are now able to use as much as 10GbE.While the use of a 10GbE solution greatly simplifies the networking infrastructure and addresses all the 1Gb NIC shortcomings, there are a few challenges that still need to be addressed to maximize the value of a 10GbE solution. One means of optimizing the 10GbE network bandwidth is to prioritize the network traffic by traffic flows. This ensures that latency-sensitive and critical traffic flows can access the bandwidth they need. VMware® Network I/O Control: Architecture, Performance and Best Practiceshttp://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW_Netioc_BestPractices.pdf