vmxnet3 1.3.1.0-5 and Kernel 3.13.11.10

[Jason Strongman]

Some background.

I am currently running some performance tests against apache traffic
server. My initial tests against trusty(latest mainline64bit kernel)
was less than desired. I then ran the same tests against precise with
the latest mainline 64bit kernel and performance was much better, but
numbers were still not in the same range as our RHEL 6.5 build.  Keep
in mind all VMs have the same virtual hardware profile and same
resource allocation.

Since the default precise install gave the best performance, I decided
to start tweaking this install and go from there.

On the precise instance I used the kernel referenced in the vmware
respoitory - 3.2.0-29-virtual(precise)

I then installed the below module.

http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/binary-amd64/vmware-tools-vmxnet3-modules-source_1.3.1.0-5.precise_amd64.deb


This combination of 3.2.0-29-virtual(precise) plus vmxnet3 1.3.1.0-5
resulted in the BEST throughput than any other combination. It is a
night and day difference.  However it's still a bit worse than our
RHEL 6.5 build, but not bad. We are talking a few milliseconds
difference.  So I am thinking the major bottleneck is the upstream
vmxnet3 module. This is the reason for trying to compile the latest
external vmxnet3 module against the latest mainline kernel.

So in summary I have tried:

1. Trusty  with the latest mainline kernel combined with the
native/upstream vmxnet3 kernel module. - worst performance
2. Precise with the latest mainline kernel combined with the
native/upstream vmxnet3 kernel module - slightly better performance
3. Precise with the  3.2.0-29-virtual kernel combined with the latest
vmware provided external vmxnet3 kernel module - BEST performance





On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 3:03 AM, Stefan Bader
<stefan.bader at canonical.com> wrote:
>
> On 26.11.2014 03:45, Jason Strongman wrote:
> > i am having issues compiling the latest vmxnet3 driver against any of the
> > 3.13.x kernels. are there any patches i should be using to get this module
> > to compile? i can compile with no problems against any of the 3.2.x
> > kernels.
> >
>
> Do you really need the external vmxnet3 module? VMWare upstreamed their drivers
> and 3.13 comes with that driver already. Since you say 3.2 compiles, is this a
> Precise (12.04) base install with the 3.13 HWE kernel?
>
> -Stefan
>
>