I have Filers in several locations. My newest installation has a noticeable DECREASE in performance.
Of all the possible factors (OS version, network hardware/software etc..) the only common denominator is that all of my previous installations have filers with two PCI Fiber Channel Cards and the filers in the new location use One PCI Fiber Channel card and one On-Board Fiber Channel adapter.
Are there any known issues with using the on-board Fiber Channel adapter vs. PCI Fiber Channel adapters ??
Walter,
I assume you're using a F7XX-series filer since the newer F8XX filers do not have onboard FC-AL.
Netapp's F7XX motherboard FC-AL has a known bug and Netapp ended up shipping every F7XX with a free PCI FC-AL card after the bug was found. They usually shipped the motherboard FC-AL with a terminator and an orange sticker saying not to use that port :-)
I would highly recommend moving off the onboard FC-AL to a PCI FC-AL connection.
/Brian/