Gigabit networking speeds

Gigabit networking speeds

[Gerard Saraber]

Hi,
we were testing the network throughput with some simple wget tests,
grabbing a 112MB file off another machine, the host OS gets 46MB/sec
transferring that file, but the guest virtual ones only get 10-14MB/sec,
I'm using model=rtl8139 for the nic, and a tap via a bridge, I'm
wondering if I'm doing something wrong, is there another nic model I can
use to make it faster? or use a different method besides the network tap
+bridge thing? 
I tested two guests pulling the same file at the same time, both got
~10MB/sec, so it seems the host is up to it, but the guests are somehow
limited..
I saw some patches for an "IOQ" driver, should I be using a different
kernel tree?

I'm using kvm-40 and linux 2.6.23-rc6

-- 
Regards,
Gerard Saraber
Network Admin, Rarcoa, Inc.
(630) 654-2580 x199
gsaraber-/tCmSuwdN3vQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org


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Re: Gigabit networking speeds

[Anthony Liguori]

Gerard Saraber wrote:
> Hi,
> we were testing the network throughput with some simple wget tests,
> grabbing a 112MB file off another machine, the host OS gets 46MB/sec
> transferring that file, but the guest virtual ones only get 10-14MB/sec,
> I'm using model=rtl8139 for the nic, and a tap via a bridge,

This is unfortunately the expected results with the rtl8139 nic.  Dor 
and Rusty's PV network driver should give you closer to your expected 
results.  Dor posted a link pretty recently to it.  It will probably be 
a little while before it's all ready for prime-time though.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

>  I'm
> wondering if I'm doing something wrong, is there another nic model I can
> use to make it faster? or use a different method besides the network tap
> +bridge thing? 
> I tested two guests pulling the same file at the same time, both got
> ~10MB/sec, so it seems the host is up to it, but the guests are somehow
> limited..
> I saw some patches for an "IOQ" driver, should I be using a different
> kernel tree?
>
> I'm using kvm-40 and linux 2.6.23-rc6
>
>   


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