HP Auto Port Aggregation Performance and Scalability

Benchmark Results
The HP APA link aggregates provided outstanding scalable performance for various workloads when used
in accordance with the recommendations in “Benchmark Components” (page 11) and “Configuration ”
(page 9).
Link rate throughput is maintained for link aggregates with 2, 4, and 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports. A 2-port
aggregate has a sustained unidirectional throughput equal to 2 individual ports, a 4-port aggregate has a
sustained throughput equal to 4 individual ports, and an 8-port aggregate has a sustained throughput equal
to 8 individual ports.
This section presents the following performance data:
• Unidirectional throughput with HP APA
• Bidirectional throughput with HP APA
Unidirectional Throughput Performance
Figure 1 shows HP APA throughput numbers with unidirectional transmit and receive workloads for 2-, 4-,
and 8-port link aggregates.
Figure 1 HP APA Throughput for Unidirectional Transmit and Receive Workloads
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
Megabits per Second
2-port HP APA
1891 1887
4-port HP APA
3786 3779
8-port HP APA
7546 7448
Transmit Receive
HP APA aggregates provide sustained link rate throughput for the unidirectional transmit and receive
workloads, for any number of Gigabit links in the aggregate, up to the maximum of 8 ports in an aggregate.
With 8 ports in the link aggregate, the throughput is an outstanding 7.5 Gb/s for unidirectional transmit
and receive workloads.
During the unidirectional transmit tests, the CPU utilization (normalized across all 16 CPUs on the server)
was about 7 percent, 16 percent, and 39 percent for 2-, 4-, and 8-port link aggregates, respectively. The
packet rate was approximately 82K packets per second per port.
During the unidirectional receive tests, the CPU utilization (normalized across all the 16 CPUs on the server)
was about 7 percent, 16 percent, and 37 percent for 2-, 4-, and 8-port link aggregates, respectively. The
average packet rate was approximately 82K packets per second per port.
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