Appendix F. Protectier Replication Network Performance Validation Utility - IBM System Storage TS7600 ProtecTIER Series Installation Roadmap Manual

Appendix F. ProtecTIER Replication Network Performance
Validation Utility
The pt_net_perf_util utility's objective is to test maximal replication performance
between two future PT repositories by emulating the network usage patterns of
PT's Native Replication component. This utility will not predict replication
performance, but it may discover performance bottlenecks.
Before you begin
The requirements of this utility are as follows:
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4
v Standard external utilities expected to be in the current path: ping, netstat,
The pt_net_perf_util utility and the iperf and nuttcp tools it uses are installed as
part of the ProtecTIER software installation. To test the replication performance,
use one of the following tools:
v iperf 2.0.4
v nuttcp 6.1.2
Note: Use iperf or nuttcp for the procedures below. The utilities cannot be used
together.
This utility has two modes of operation, client and server. The server has to be
started before the client. Before running the utility, shut down all other programs
on both the client and server ProtecTIER systems. The client is the ProtecTIER
system that transmits the test data and the server is the ProtecTIER system that
receives the data (also known as the target server). Based on the data sent by the
client and received by the server, the script outputs key network parameter values
which indicate certain attributes of the network. The goal of these tests is to
benchmark the throughput of the network. The most important benchmark is the
direction that replication will actually take place, i.e. the target should be tested as
the server since the flow of data will be to that server from the client. However, it
is also important to also test the reverse direction to measure the bandwidth
performance during disaster recovery failback. Network bandwidth is not always
the same in both directions.
About this task
In the following procedure, the goal is to test network performance between two
machines on a WAN, server1 and server2. Each test will run for five minutes.
Since there are five tests, the process will take a total of 25 minutes.
Procedure
1. Start the server mode of the utility on server1 by entering the following
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008, 2010
getopt, echo.
/usr/local/bin/iperf
/usr/local/bin/nuttcp-6.1.2
commands on the command line:
cd /opt/dtc/app/sbin
./pt_net_perf_util -s
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