Pair of 6224's stacked with several VLAN's. On VLAN 101 we have a large storage system and many servers. On VLAN 102 we many additonal servers. All servers are running Windows 2003. The 6224's are the core of the network with only field switches connected via LAG's. When running disk read/write performance tests from the servers to the NAS storage, we find that any server in VLAN 102 reads/writes at roughly 1/2 the rate of servers in VLAN 101. Example, server A IP 10.1.1.100 writes to NAS at 10.1.1.155 (routes through server field switch through core to NAS field switch) writes at roughly 80Mbps. Server B IP 10.2.2.100 writes to NAS at 10.1.1.155 (routes through server field switch through core to NAS field switch) writes at roughly 35Mbps. We can duplicate this performance across any server in our farms.
My thought is I am having performance issues when routing from the 102 to the 101 network.
We are running an old version of the firmware but before I upgrade I wanted to see if anyone has experienced anything like this.
2.0.0.12 firmware has some performance problems compare to the latest firmware (3.2.0.7). I highly recommend updating to the latest firmware. Be sure and follow the upgrade instructions CARFULLY. Specifically, update each switch separately, with no network traffic and update the bootcode from the bootcode, not the application firm.
Is the vlan 102 traffic traveling across the stacking links? Do you get the same performance when using a single switch? what are the other switches in your network?
First thing to note is that 10.1.1.100 is on the same subnet as the NAS and for that reason there is no VLAN routing taking place. This will a count for some of the loss. Have you done a sniff on the this issue to see if you are getting fragmentation?
I'm confused with your statement. No problems are encountered when going from 10.1.1.x to the NAS, only hosts from 10.2.2.x that go to the NAS. See the included link to an image for more information on how our setup is.
Given the 2 switches are stacked (with stacking cable), I presume they are acting as 1 switch thus I would need to upgrade them together (unless you think I should unstack and upgrade). The documentation is not 100% clear about this. I intend to open a case with Dell prior to the upgrade. My 1st pass at the upgrade docs says 1st run the firmware upgrade, then run the bootcode upgrade from the boot prompt after the firmware upgrade is complete. Never done it like that before.
I have LAG's built across the switches in the stack for redundancy (say a 2 port LAG is on switch1/15 and switch 2/15). This allows for a full switch failure. The field switches are a mix of 3com 3870's and Dell PC5224's. I haven't tested with one switch for performance.
Definitely UNSTACK the switches and upgrade them separately. Updating the bootcode from the bootcode is key to avoid a chance at corrupting the flash file system of the switch.
3.2 firmware has fast master failover, so since you are counting on the multiple switches in the stack for redundancy, this will be a key feature for you.
bh1633
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Posted June 14th, 2010 15:00
2.0.0.12 firmware has some performance problems compare to the latest firmware (3.2.0.7). I highly recommend updating to the latest firmware. Be sure and follow the upgrade instructions CARFULLY. Specifically, update each switch separately, with no network traffic and update the bootcode from the bootcode, not the application firm.
Is the vlan 102 traffic traveling across the stacking links? Do you get the same performance when using a single switch? what are the other switches in your network?