Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) allows for significantly increased
throughput and low latency by performing direct memory transfers between
servers.
For Scale-Out File Server configurations,
SMB Direct is a feature of Windows Server 2012 R2 that enables the
use of RDMA between SMB clients and the server. SMB Direct requires
a network adapter, which supports the RDMA protocol. Also, both the
storage nodes and the SMB clients must have RDMA adapters installed
to use SMB Direct. For more information about a list of supported
RDMA adapters, see the
Dell Storage with Microsoft
Storage Spaces Support Matrix
available at
Dell.com/dsmsmanuals.
Configure RDMA adapters on all SMB clients and
servers for jumbo frames with the MTU frame size set to 9 KB. Also,
verify that flow control is enabled on every NIC.
Also, when adding supported RDMA adapters to the solution there are
several steps required in Windows Server 2012 R2 to ensure SMB Direct
is enabled, existing SMB connections are refreshed, and SMB routing
is configured (if supported by the adapter). For more information
about configuring the RDMA adapters, see the
Dell
Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces Deployment Guide
available
at
Dell.com/ dsmsmanuals.
For Converged configurations, RDMA is typically used for internal
communication between server cluster nodes with heavy I/O profiles
such as CSV redirection and Hyper-V live Migration. RDMA adapters
should not be teamed or added to a Hyper-V virtual switch, because
they will lose the RDMA functionality. Configure RDMA adapters on
all servers for jumbo frames with the MTU frame size set to 9 KB.
Also, ensure that flow control is enabled on every NIC.