X550-T2 Less than half speed on 10Gb Hyper-V Guests

[Keeop]

Hi,

I have this x550-T2 currently sitting in a Poweredge R730 running Windows 2019 STD as the host. I have a couple of guest VMs creates running Windows 10. The Hyper-V virtual switch that both these guests are using has been created using one of the X550's ports.

Now, when running iPerf between the two guest VMs, I can't get any speeds faster than 4Gbs - I would say the average is around 3.5Gbs.

Any ideas please? The web is full of people moaning about Intel NICs running Hyper-V but hopefully we can get somewhere. There is also talk about disabling/enabling various offloading methods such as VMQ and SRV-IOV etc.  

So, I guess I'm after the optimal settings for this card - both on the physical card and the NIC settings for the guest VMs - and anything else that I might be missing here

Thanks.

Keeop

ps. NIC Driver version: 4.1.246.2

[Hayat]

Hi Keeop,

Thank you for posting in Intel Ethernet Communities.

In order for us to investigate further, please provide the information below:

- Is it a prebuilt or the card purchased separately?

- When the issue start happening?

- Any software or hardware changes to your system and network router/switch recently?

- Please confirm if you are using the latest driver version (Installed from DELL or INTEL)?

- Have you checked the issue with DELL and ISP provider?

Please be informed that if X550-T2 is prebuilt with Dell Poweredge R730, you are advised to contact OEM-(DELL).

https://www.dell.com/support/incidents-online/en-uk/contactus/dynamic?ref=cpcl_techithelp-csb270_cta_primary_contacttechnicalsupport

Kindly check the datasheet and product brief to know more: Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550-T2

Kindly let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Hayat

Intel Customer Support

[Hayat]

Hi Keeop,

Thank you for posting in Intel Ethernet Communities.

In order for us to investigate further, please provide the information below:

- Is it a prebuilt or the card purchased separately?

- When the issue start happening?

- Any software or hardware changes to your system and network router/switch recently?

- Please confirm if you are using the latest driver version (Installed from DELL or INTEL)?

- Have you checked the issue with DELL and ISP provider?

Please be informed that if X550-T2 is prebuilt with Dell Poweredge R730, you are advised to contact OEM-(DELL).

https://www.dell.com/support/incidents-online/en-uk/contactus/dynamic?ref=cpcl_techithelp-csb270_cta_primary_contacttechnicalsupport

Kindly check the datasheet and product brief to know more: Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550-T2

Kindly let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Hayat

Intel Customer Support

[Keeop]

Hi,

This is a separately bought Intel branded card that I have put in the server. Drivers and ProSet are v28.0. NVM is the latest.

So, this has happened since I've tried to use this card. I am trying to move over to 10Gb. The existing cards in the server are all 1Gb and have worked fine at that speed. This X550-T2 has been put in to use 10Gb. ProSet and the switch correctly identify the card as running at 10Gb but yeah, using iPerf between two guest VMs that are both using a virtual switch created from this NIC, I generally only get about 3.5Gb.

I have briefly played with VMQ and SRV-IOV. VMQ is still enabled on the physical card but when enabled on the virtual card, speeds where only around 2Gb. Disabling VMQ on the virtual card but leaving SRV-IOV enabled has got this up to 3.5Gb so I am thinking this can possibly be improved upon by playing with some of those type of settings, but don't know what the optimum combination would be as am unfamiliar with the technologies and the Intel implementation.

Cheers.

Keeop

[Hayat]

Hi Keeop,

Thank you for the information provided.

Can you please share with us the front and back picture of the X550-T2.

We are currently checking on this issue further and will get back soon with more updates.

Regards,

Hayat

Intel Customer Support

[Keeop]

Hi Hayat,

Please see this other post as I wanted to verify authenticity!

https://community.intel.com/t5/Ethernet-Products/Intel-X550-T2-Authenticity/m-p/1556206/emcs_t/S2h8ZW1haWx8dG9waWNfc3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ufExRRVY2WEhYTkFYRTJEfDE1NTYyMDZ8U1VCU0NSSVBUSU9OU3xoSw#M35754

Cheers.

Keeop

[Hayat]

Hi Keeop,

May I know if you are using iperf3 to measure?

This is a single threaded application which may cause bottlenecks.

When running a performance test make sure to monitor other resources such as CPU, memory, disk etc. to ascertain if there are other bottlenecks.

When running from VM to VM, are both VMs attached to the same port? That can reduce the bandwidth to each VM.

Below documentation contains additional information for SR-IOV for E810:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000088702/ethernet-products/800-series-network-adapters-up-to-100gbe.html

Kindly let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Hayat

Intel Customer Support

[Keeop]

Hi Hayat,

Yes, was using iPerf3. However, just doing a basic file copy results in the same speeds - between 2Gb and 4Gb. The VMs have plenty of memory and CPU cores and these aren't being stretched at all. They are using the same NIC port, yes. As per Hyper-V best practice, I am only using one virtual switch which is then used by all VMs. 

That attached doc is a bit heavy for me! Do you have any optimised NIC settings - both physical and virtual - for the X550 cards when used in this type of scenario?

Cheers.

Keeop 

[Hayat]

Hi Keeop,

Thank you for the information provided.

We are currently checking on this issue further and will get back soon with more updates.

Regards,

Hayat

Intel Customer Support

[adresner]

I have the same issue.  Windows Server 2019 Datacenter using Hyper-V.  I have tried SR-IOV, VMQ, Switch Embedded, features on and off.  4P X550 rNDC... all flash storage structure, etc.  R740xd gets half the performance on 10G.  R730 gets have the performance on 10G.  

Even VM to VM thru the vSwitch on VMQ can't break 50%.  

However, my T340 (Also 2019 Datacenter with Hyper-V) with an aftermarket X550-T2 off eBay gets 90% of the 10G 2019 VM to Server 2019 VM. over the vSwitch.  

And my Supermicro based 13900K workstation with an aftermarket X550-T2 off eBay gets 20G using Proxmox Hypervisor and Server 2019 VM to Server 2019 VM over its internal BOND network.  

However, even taking my 2 fastest... and iPerfing at each other, getting 50% of 10G performance.  

Ubiquiti 10G Switch, no jumbo frames, no exotic settings, mostly out of the box.

Also testing with iPerf3

[Keeop]

I ended up sticking in a X710 quad port SFP+ card. Now I get 9+.