topic Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput in ONTAP Discussions

Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:01:43 GMT

Hello,

we have a pair of FAS3040 filers (Ontap 8.0.1). One for the data and one for the snapshots. Each of two has 4x GbE interaces which are connected to a Cisco switch in a Port Channel. The filers are located in different datacenters which are connected by 10 GbE. I don't know the exact network topology but according to the network support team there is no network performance bottleneck (they checked the stats and graphs).

What I see during the transfer of a snapshot to the backup filer is a throughput of ~30 MB/s. I've seen CIFS traffic to and from the data filer with >50 MB/s. The cpu load is ø 30%.

Any ideas what to check?

VUMEF004 is the primary system (source)

VUMEF006 the backup system (destination)

VUMEF004> ifgrp status

default: transmit 'IP Load balancing', Ifgrp Type 'multi_mode', fail 'log'

vif0: 4 links, transmit 'IP Load balancing', Ifgrp Type 'multi_mode' fail 'default'

Ifgrp Status Up Addr_set

up:

e4b: state up, since 16Dec2010 16:49:58 (35+19:54:38)

mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up

flags: enabled

input packets 617954924, input bytes 201018021022

output packets 18661492, output bytes 1548164538

up indications 1, broken indications 0

drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0

indication: up at 16Dec2010 16:49:58

consecutive 3095447, transitions 1

e4a: state up, since 16Dec2010 16:49:58 (35+19:54:38)

mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up

flags: enabled

input packets 31327899, input bytes 3541567215

output packets 1003817786, output bytes 1498665173524

up indications 1, broken indications 0

drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0

indication: up at 16Dec2010 16:49:58

consecutive 3095447, transitions 1

e3b: state up, since 16Dec2010 16:49:58 (35+19:54:38)

mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up

flags: enabled

input packets 6763888, input bytes 709795867

output packets 47740311, output bytes 3829076142

up indications 1, broken indications 0

drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0

indication: up at 16Dec2010 16:49:58

consecutive 3095447, transitions 1

e3a: state up, since 16Dec2010 16:49:58 (35+19:54:38)

mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up

flags: enabled

input packets 7380650, input bytes 614070676

output packets 5273889, output bytes 7586525498

up indications 1, broken indications 0

drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0

indication: up at 16Dec2010 16:49:58

consecutive 3095447, transitions 1

VUMEF006> ifgrp status
default: transmit 'IP Load balancing', Ifgrp Type 'multi_mode', fail 'log'
vif0: 4 links, transmit 'IP Load balancing', Ifgrp Type 'multi_mode' fail 'default'
     Ifgrp Status    Up     Addr_set
    up:
    e4b: state up, since 06Jan2011 16:48:56 (14+19:56:40)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up
        flags: enabled
        input packets 668826329, input bytes 1013962060137
        output packets 5048868, output bytes 590464021
        up indications 1, broken indications 0
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0
        indication: up at 06Jan2011 16:48:56
            consecutive 1281303, transitions 1
    e4a: state up, since 06Jan2011 16:48:56 (14+19:56:40)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up
        flags: enabled
        input packets 2031316, input bytes 133486263
        output packets 60777, output bytes 5758807
        up indications 1, broken indications 0
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0
        indication: up at 06Jan2011 16:48:56
            consecutive 1281303, transitions 1
    e3b: state up, since 06Jan2011 16:48:56 (14+19:56:40)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up
        flags: enabled
        input packets 16087423, input bytes 1783457403
        output packets 224969, output bytes 16381402
        up indications 1, broken indications 0
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0
        indication: up at 06Jan2011 16:48:56
            consecutive 1281303, transitions 1
    e3a: state up, since 06Jan2011 16:48:56 (14+19:56:40)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up
        flags: enabled
        input packets 2303947, input bytes 769575573
        output packets 352882441, output bytes 32534561175
        up indications 1, broken indications 0
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0
        indication: up at 06Jan2011 16:48:56
            consecutive 1281303, transitions 1

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

BrendonHiggins — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:26:00 GMT

Is the aggregate full more than 85% full can be a bad place to be for performance.

The command sysstat -x will tell you what is happening in your system. Is anything maxed out?

You can use the statit command to see what the disks are doing, are they maxed out, any hot spots.

you could use the pktt start / stop command to create a packet trace on both filers. Use wireshark or another tool to see what is happening to your packets. TCP windowing issue, MTU problem, retransmits due to inline compression on the WAN?

Hope it helps

Bren

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:35:11 GMT

Hi,

the 2 filers are FAS3140 not 3040, I'm always mixing it up. Right now there is inbound traffic to the data server, the Windows client that is writing to the share is connected by a different interface. Additionally I triggered a snapvault to run now. It's the same max. throughput it was this night (30-40 MB/s).

The attached graph shows that the throughput seems to hit some limit, the max. throughput shows only a few % difference over the running time. I can't see much of a performance problem in the sysstat output.

snapvault source

CPU    NFS   CIFS   HTTP   Total     Net   kB/s    Disk   kB/s    Tape   kB/s Cache Cache    CP CP Disk   OTHER    FCP iSCSI     FCP   kB/s   iSCSI   kB/s
                                       in    out    read write    read write    age    hit time ty util                            in    out      in    out
21%      0    544      0     547   35962 38127   33124    340       0      0     6s    40%   11% :    10%       3      0      0       0      0       0      0
33%      0    478      0     478   31794 38770   36564 53252       0      0     4s    78%   52% Ff   18%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
29%      0    518      0     518   34271 39376   40112 60880       0      0     6s    78% 100% :f   20%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
24%      0    498      0     498   33063 39318   45412 18284       0      0    24     57%   42% :    14%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
20%      0    548      0     548   36234 38758   30856      0       0      0    24     32%    0% -     8%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
37%      0    498      0     503   33023 39269   41329 57277       0      0    24     76%   85% Ff   18%       5      0      0       0      0       0      0
28%      0    494      0     494   32792 39539   35468 57084       0      0     4s    77% 100% :f   15%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
23%      0    522      0     522   34603 40132   35548 18608       0      0    24     56%   43% :    15%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
30%      0    478      0     478   31638 39340   43476 18976       0      0     5s    62%   20% Ff   13%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
30%      0    535      0     535   35432 39820   40060 61767       0      0     5s    81% 100% :f   19%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
29%      0    534      0     537   35431 42297   37572 51476       0      0    24     79%   96% :    17%       3      0      0       0      0       0      0
21%      0    546      0     546   36174 41229   35872     24       0      0    24     39%    0% -     8%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
39%      0    492      0     556   32603 37453   33676 57352       0      0     4s    82%   62% Ff   18%      64      0      0       0      0       0      0
31%      0    518      0     518   34351 38045   42376 61324       0      0     4s    75% 100% :f   19%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
23%      0    545      0     545   35997 36496   38548 13780       0      0     4s    59%   34% :    10%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
28%      0    498      0     501   32909 36817   33022   3485       0      0     7s    40%   10% Fn    9%       3      0      0       0      0       0      0
32%      0    517      0     517   34277 39103   42443 67154       0      0     4s    79% 100% :f   20%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
29%      0    518      0     518   34322 38960   32792 61304       0      0     9s    79% 100% :f   17%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0

snapvault destination

CPU    NFS   CIFS   HTTP   Total     Net   kB/s    Disk   kB/s    Tape   kB/s Cache Cache    CP CP Disk   OTHER    FCP iSCSI     FCP   kB/s   iSCSI   kB/s
                                       in    out    read write    read write    age    hit time ty util                            in    out      in    out
26%      0      0      0       0   38315    848    3836 59486       0      0     4s   100%   63% Ff   12%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
18%      0      0      0       0   37695    835       8 63256       0      0     4s   100% 100% :f   10%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
14%      0      0      0       0   39143    866     204 12792       0      0     4s   100%   30% :    12%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
24%      0      0      0       3   38654    855    5348 34448       0      0     4s   100%   40% Ff   11%       3      0      0       0      0       0      0
18%      0      0      0       0   37276    825    1800 62192       0      0     4s   100% 100% :f   10%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
17%      0      0      0       0   38087    843     836 38444       0      0     4s   100%   78% :    13%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
22%      0      0      0       0   39770    883    2412 23292       0      0     4s   100%   27% Ff    7%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
19%      0      0      0       0   39647    881     692 63520       0      0    26    100% 100% :f   11%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
17%      0      0      0       3   38304    848     808 47420       0      0    26    100%   91% :    20%       3      0      0       0      0       0      0
19%      0      0      0       0   40060    886    1175   7936       0      0     4s   100%    9% Fn    5%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
24%      0      0      0       0   42355    936    6378 83141       0      0    26    100% 100% :f   16%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
17%      0      0      0       0   38834    859     428 44140       0      0    26    100%   82% :    14%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
12%      0      0      0       0   36964    818       0      8       0      0     4s   100%    0% -     2%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
26%      0      0      0       5   35451    785    3360 83496       0      0     4s   100%   97% Ff   16%       5      0      0       0      0       0      0
18%      0      0      0       0   36488    808    1364 52212       0      0     4s   100%   96% :    14%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
12%      0      0      0       0   36823    815       0      0       0      0     4s   100%    0% -     0%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0
26%      0      0      0       0   38536    853    3904 60112       0      0     5s   100%   59% Ff   13%       0      0      0       0      0       0      0

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:44:36 GMT

ah, forgot. The volume is new and only 20% is used.

source

VUMEF004> df -Vh /vol/VUMEF004_nas_vol009/
Filesystem               total       used      avail capacity Mounted on
/vol/VUMEF004_nas_vol009/     7782GB     1533GB     6248GB      20% /vol/VUMEF004_nas_vol009/
/vol/VUMEF004_nas_vol009/.snapshot      409GB      878MB      408GB       0% /vol/VUMEF004_nas_vol009/.snapshot

destiantion

VUMEF006> df -Vh /vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/
Filesystem               total       used      avail capacity Mounted on
/vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/     7782GB     1094GB     6688GB      14% /vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/
/vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/.snapshot      409GB     4219MB      405GB       1% /vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/.snapshot

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

BrendonHiggins — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:23:06 GMT

It is fair to say the system is not maxed out for CPU, Disk I/O or Network. Looks like you are using 1/2 of 1Gb pipe so it should do more.

Have you confirmed that the snapvault does not have throttling enabled? snapvault modify filer:/vol/volname/qtree

Bren

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

BrendonHiggins — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:28:59 GMT

Also have a look at the options of both filers for replication throttle

options rep

If there is no throttling it could be a network throughput issue. Here is how to get a network trace from the filer.

https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1010155

Good luck

Bren

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

alapati — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:40:56 GMT

What is the round trip latency between SnapVault primary and secondary systems?

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:44:07 GMT

looks ok to me

VUMEF006> snapvault modify VUMEF006:/vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/xxxxx
No changes in the configuration.
Configuration for qtree /vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/xxxxx is:
/vol/VUMEF006_svd_VUMEF004_nas_vol009/xxxxx source=VUMEF004:/vol/VUMEF004_nas_vol009/xxxxx kbs=unlimited tries=2 back_up_open_files=on,ignore_atime=off,utf8_primary_path=off

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:45:07 GMT

VUMEF004> options rep
replication.logical.reserved_transfers 0          (value might be overwritten in takeover)
replication.throttle.enable off
replication.throttle.incoming.max_kbs unlimited
replication.throttle.outgoing.max_kbs unlimited
replication.volume.reserved_transfers 0          (value might be overwritten in takeover)
replication.volume.use_auto_resync off        (value might be overwritten in takeover)

VUMEF006> options rep
replication.logical.reserved_transfers 0          (value might be overwritten in takeover)
replication.throttle.enable off
replication.throttle.incoming.max_kbs unlimited
replication.throttle.outgoing.max_kbs unlimited
replication.volume.reserved_transfers 0          (value might be overwritten in takeover)
replication.volume.use_auto_resync off        (value might be overwritten in takeover)

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:47:34 GMT

VUMEF004> ping -s vumef006
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=0 ttl=250 time=42.132 ms
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=56.589 ms
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=40.971 ms
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=3 ttl=250 time=54.194 ms
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=4 ttl=250 time=39.315 ms

VUMEF006> ping -s vumef004
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=0 ttl=250 time=46.550 ms
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=55.573 ms
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=43.920 ms
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=3 ttl=250 time=51.817 ms

I have too look into this again on monday, then I will contact the network people again and our netapp support. Thanks so far!

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

BrendonHiggins — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:52:47 GMT

Also look at traceroute to see which hope is giving you the problem.

My ping is across multiple routers and a WAN link and I get >10ms

round-trip min/avg/max = 0.895/1.746/6.016 ms

Bren

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

alapati — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:28:38 GMT

Without knowing anything else with the environment, I think (this is a wild speculation) the limited window size *might* be your issue here. Assuming 45ms round trip latency (RTT) from your output you posted earlier.

Max throughput possible = Window Size / RTT = 2MB / 45ms =~ 44MB/s

The max and default window size for SnaVault is 2MB as of now. I need to confirm if there are plans to increasing this.

I suggest you open a case and resolve/confirm is this is the real issue.

Regards

Srinath

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 08:56:37 GMT

Ah, this looks interesting....

Now, without the snapshot transfer, the RTT looks perfectly normal.

VUMEF004> ping -s vumef006
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=0 ttl=250 time=0.395 ms
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=0.410 ms
64 bytes from vumef006.rd.corpintra.net (xx.62.180.179): icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=0.435 ms

VUMEF006> ping -s vumef004
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=0 ttl=250 time=0.445 ms
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=0.431 ms
64 bytes from vumef004.rd.corpintra.net (xx.60.6.232): icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=0.402 ms

Both systems are monitored with smokeping. I see an increase in the RTT from the monitoring server during snapshot transfer too, but ony in the 400 us range (graphs attached).

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:24:43 GMT

this is a bit strange. I only see this high RTT during the snapshot transfer. And it's not the same for all clients/server.

- VUMEF004 (source) -> VUMEF006 (destiantion): high RTT during snapshot transfer (0,2 ms -> 40 ms) in both directions.

- monitoring server (same datacenter as VUMEF004) -> VUMEF004: higher RTT, but only 0,2 ms -> 0,5 ms

- monitoring server -> VUMEF006: higher RTT, but only 0,2 ms -> 0,5 ms

So smokeping on the monitoring server doesn't see the extrem high RTT during snapshot transfer.

- my desktop client -> VUMEF004: higher RTT, 0,2 ms -> 40 ms

- my desktop client -> VUMEF006: higher RTT, but only 0,2 ms -> 0,5 ms

Can this be realated to the ifgrp settings? So that depending on the IP adresse, a different interface of the 4 in this ifgrp is answering the UDP packets? Should I see such a high RTT during snapshot transfer at all? The networt people told me again that none of the switches between the two netapp systems is a bottleneck.

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:29:35 GMT

Ok, did some debugging with the networking support... The vif0 port group consist of 4 interfaces on netapp side (e4b, e3a, e4a, e3b) and is part of a cisco etherchannel. vif0 ueses an IP based hash, so does the Cisco etherchannel. The 4 ports on the Cisco side are split up in 2 switch modules to get module redundancy.

We started with removing one switch port interface after the other on the switch side from the etherchannel. When there was just one interace in the etherchannel left, the throughput jumped up to 120 MB/s, which is what I would have also expected for vif0 with 4 active ports - max. speed of one interface. Then we enabled all interfaces and did the same again but starting on the other switch module. The same effect, but after enabling the second interface again, the throughput stayed at 120 MB/s. This seems to be a bit random.

The networking people still say the config of the etherchannel is ok and not differnt to other netapp filers.

VUMEF004> ifgrp status vif0

default: transmit 'IP Load balancing', Ifgrp Type 'multi_mode', fail 'log'
vif0: 2 links, transmit 'IP Load balancing', Ifgrp Type 'multi_mode' fail 'default'
     Ifgrp Status    Up     Addr_set
    up:
    e4b: state up, since 24Jan2011 12:39:35 (00:38:59)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up
        flags: enabled
        input packets 2800144986, input bytes 353775398696
        output packets 205795367, output bytes 283714034956
        up indications 2, broken indications 1
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 4
        indication: up at 24Jan2011 12:39:35
            consecutive 3355235, transitions 3
    e3a: state up, since 24Jan2011 12:37:40 (00:40:54)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-up
        flags: enabled
        input packets 10953612, input bytes 869592825
        output packets 11440162, output bytes 16913835120
        up indications 2, broken indications 1
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 1
        indication: up at 24Jan2011 12:37:40
            consecutive 3355350, transitions 3
    broken:
    e4a: state broken, since 24Jan2011 12:38:13 (00:40:21)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-down
        flags:
        input packets 44847287, input bytes 4604932999
        output packets 5155921939, output bytes 7783151794313
        up indications 2, broken indications 2
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 18
        indication: broken at 24Jan2011 12:38:13
            consecutive 3354048, transitions 4
    e3b: state broken, since 24Jan2011 12:38:06 (00:40:28)
        mediatype: auto-1000t-fd-down
        flags:
        input packets 26651056, input bytes 2106565453
        output packets 62931662, output bytes 26813694553
        up indications 2, broken indications 2
        drops (if) 0, drops (link) 0
        indication: broken at 24Jan2011 12:38:06
            consecutive 3353953, transitions 4

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:02:06 GMT

Every interface on its own in the etherchannel delivers the full 120 MB/s speed. But... as soon as there are more ports in the channel/vif0 active _and_ the incoming and outgoing packets are comin in / going out on different ports the throughput dropps to 40 MB/s. If 2..3..4 ports are active but the in/out traffic is going to the same interface everything is fine.

IMHO this is strange, because it is perfectly normal that the netapp filer chooses a outgoing port based on the IP hash, and the switch chooses a different port on its own hash for the packets directed to the netapp.

Re: Snapvault Snapshot network throughput

ralfgross — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:46:42 GMT

I completely forgot to give some feedback.

NetApp Support could reproduce the problem. It's a bug in at least Ontap 8.0.1. The workaround ist to do a setflag tcp_do_rfc1323 0 on the snapvault destination filer. After that the throughput rises to ~100 MB/s with all 4 interfaces active. That's still ~20 MB/s less than with a single interface, but much better than the 40 MB/s before.