Sorry for replying to my own post.  Want to amend my theory:

OnCommand Core's protocol latency -- my thinking is this is measuring
the time from when an NFS (or CIFS) packet is received, passes through
the protocol layers, is serviced by the I/O subsystem and passes
through the protocol layer again and is passed off to the network layer
for transmission.  I'm guessing it doesn't take into account any sort
of acknowledgement or response from the "client".

Ray

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 03:09:16PM -0700, Ray Van Dolson wrote:
> I've often wondered what exactly is being measured with the protocol
> latency metrics either in OnCommand Core or System Manager.  Presumably
> it's measuring the time to service a protocol-sourced IO request from
> the time it's received to the time a response is transmitted and some
> sort of ACK is received on the network layer? (maybe not the latter
> piece).
>
> On the VMware side maybe it's slightly different... if an I/O request
> has to be broken up into multiple NFS packets for example due to
> alignment issues....
>
> Would be interesting if someone knows the true background on what these
> metrics mean.
>
> On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 04:49:44PM -0500, Philbert Rupkins wrote:
> > Thanks for the response.  I am actually using the Netapp Management Console.  I
> > should not have said DFM.
> >
> > So to rephrase my original statement, the Netapp Management Console is
> > reporting VERY different numbers than the vSphere Consoles counters for the
> > virtual machines disks.     Just trying to account for the difference in
> > accounting between the NetApp Management Consoel and the vSphere disk counters
> > for the virtual machine.
> >
> > -Phil
> >
> > On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 4:26 PM, Klise, Steve <klises@sutterhealth.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >     ·        May want to check for alignment of your vm’s.  If you have virtual
> >     storage console installed, its under monitor/host config, and tools.  Check
> >     it out.
> >
> >
> >
> >     ·        Could be a reallocate issue if you have added a bunch of disks,
> >     but is doubtful.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >     DFM is a used mostly for reporting among other things, but I use it
> >     primarily for reporting/protection manager, etc.  The Netapp Management
> >     Console is your friend.  That is the live view or a more “accurate” view of
> >     what is currently going on, with the ability to go back in time.  DFM is
> >     just going to show an average, and is not (IMHO) a good place to look for
> >     performance numbers..   Perfstat is the real ticket; that will show you
> >     console activity.
> >
> >
> >
> >     From: toasters-bounces@teaparty.net [mailto:toasters-bounces@teaparty.net]
> >     On Behalf Of Philbert Rupkins
> >     Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 2:19 PM
> >     To: toasters@teaparty.net
> >     Subject: VM Virtual Disk Latency Versus NFS Latency on Filer
> >
> >
> >
> >     Hello,
> >
> >
> >
> >     This may be more of a VMWare question.    From within Data Fabric Manager,
> >     I am seeing a spike in latency on a NetApp volume used as an NFS datastore.
> >        DFM shows a spike in NFS latency of 50 ms on the volume.
> >
> >     However,  a virtual machine's performance counters in vSphere show a spike
> >     in Virtual Disk latency upwards of 700ms for the same "latency event".
> >
> >     Any idea what might account for this difference in latency reporting
> >     between the NetApp (DFM) and ESXi?   I expected there to be some difference
> >     for obvious reasons but I didnt expect to see a difference of this
> >     magnitude.
> >
> >
> >
> >     Thanks,
> >
> >     Phil