Hi team,
I have ESXi 6.7u3 host with dedicated 4 x 10GbE NICs for Netapp traffic, using software iSCSI adapter, connected to 4 x 10GbE FAS2554 2 nodes cluster. Netapp Release 9.8P20, RAID-DP with 11 x SAS HDD. Cluster has iSCSI and NFS VMs with 1 volume and a LUN for iSCSI and 1 volume for NFS.
I have a Windows 10 VM with connected 1 x .vmdk file on iSCSI LUN and 1 x .vmdk file on NFS volume. Both files formatted with NTFS. My source is also 10GbE storage.
When I copy file from my source to iSCSI LUN .vmdk, I have average 40-65MB/s write speed.
When I copy file from my source to NFS located .vmdk, I have average 200-250MB/s write speed.
What I found from Netapp cluster console STATS SHOW command is:
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 4KB:4
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 4KB:118
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 8KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 8KB:78
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 16KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 16KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 32KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 32KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 64KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 64KB:2888
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 256KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 256KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.< 1024KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.= 1024KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_write_histo.> 1024KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 4KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 8KB:638976
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 16KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 32KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:total_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned REST:0
----
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 4KB:4
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 4KB:118
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 8KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 8KB:78
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 16KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 16KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 32KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 32KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 64KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 64KB:2888
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 256KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 256KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.< 1024KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.= 1024KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_histo.> 1024KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 4KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 8KB:638976
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 16KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned 32KB:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_misaligned_writes.misaligned REST:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<2us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<6us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<10us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<14us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<20us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<40us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<60us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<80us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<100us:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<200us:5
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<400us:128
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<600us:515
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<800us:590
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<1ms:285
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<2ms:839
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<4ms:443
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<6ms:128
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<8ms:97
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<10ms:48
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<12ms:2
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<14ms:2
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<16ms:0
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<18ms:1
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<20ms:1
volume:Datastore2_vol:iscsi_protocol_write_latency.<40ms:4
---
lun:6fb03ed4-d42a-45b7-8a42-dae58e6823c0:avg_latency:5527.17us
lun:6fb03ed4-d42a-45b7-8a42-dae58e6823c0:total_ops:1018/s
lun:6fb03ed4-d42a-45b7-8a42-dae58e6823c0:avg_read_latency:206.49us
lun:6fb03ed4-d42a-45b7-8a42-dae58e6823c0:avg_write_latency:5401.01us
The same low writing\reading speed I have if I decide to migrate VM files from or into iSCSI LUN.
I spent several nights investigating and it all comes to NETAPP or ESXi iSCSI implementation (but switching to iSCSI HBA NIC does not change anything), so I believe it's Netapp fault.
I checked Initiator group settings, it's LINUX. VMFS partition alignment is ok (starting sector 2048, but it's weird, according to ONTAP manual it should be 0), So I cant think of anything besides misalignment.
Please help me to find out the reason it's slow with iSCSI (╯°□°)╯