Myri-10G iSCSI Support
Overview and Performance with the
Myri-10G 10-Gigabit Ethernet Driver
iSCSI on Myri-10G Software Overview
Internet SCSI (iSCSI) is a standard ratified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for the use of the SCSI protocol over TCP/IP, the most widely supported and interoperable protocol for computer networks. With the recent advances in the speed and efficiency of TCP/IP stacks and hardware, including 10-Gigabit Ethernet, iSCSI is a viable and efficient option for storage-area networks (SANs) reaching 10Gb line rate.
- Since iSCSI relies on TCP/IP, Myri-10G NICs -with its efficient stateless offload features- fully support the iSCSI software stacks.
Furthermore, it also supports iSCSI boot operations in combination with iSCSI storage targets.
- For Linux iSCSI targets with Myri-10G NICs in 10-Gigabit Ethernet mode, our testing included the UNH Target and the iSCSI Enterprise Target. On Windows we evaluated the WinTarget Software from Stringbean.
- For iSCSI initiators with Myri-10G NICs in 10-Gigabit Ethernet mode, we used the open-iscsi Open Source implementation and the UNH Initiator for Linux, and for Windows we used the iSCSI Initiator 2.0 from Microsoft.
See this web page on Myri-10GE installation and tuning guide for general information on Myri-10G NICs in 10-Gigabit Ethernet mode.
iSCSI on Myri-10G Testing Results
Here are testing and performance results on Linux and Windows for the UNH and Open iSCSI software stacks. It is recomended to start with a network performance tests such as netperf to verify performance estimates. It is also advised to
start measurements using configurations with RAMDISKS to avoid potential
performance anomalies from storage attachments
Last updated: 01 November 2009