Hi All,

I have been playing with an F760 with ONTAP 6.4.1 for about thirty days. I am having a problem understanding a CIFS transfer rate difference I am seeing between writing to and from the NetApp.

First, a little background:

The F760 has a X1025B gigabit card (SX fiber) in it, connected to an Extreme BlackDiamond 6808. The BlackDiamond does -not- have jumbo frames enabled at this time. The NetApp has full flow control configured.

I am able to copy a single (30GB) file (generated by mkfile in FreeBSD) to and from the NetApp over NFSv3 at between 92-96mbit consistently, with the FreeBSD using an NFS mount having a 100mbit link.

I am able to copy the same 30GB file from the NetApp to a Windows 2000 server using CIFS at 130-160mbit consistently. The Win2k server has a gigabit SX card. When copying the file to the NetApp from the Win2k server, I am seeing a maximum throughput of 69mbit, and usually it settles around 33-40mbit. I am monitoring this transfer rate using 'sh port utillization' on the BlackDiamond. I have tested this on three different Win2k boxes, with nearly identical results. I have also followed instructions on NetApp's website on how to 'improve' performance through registry edits, with no apparent result (positive or negative). I have tried three different flowcontrol settings on the Win2k cards (send, recieve and full) - again with no change in performance.

I'm thrilled with the NFS performance, but we are a windows shop. I need to get performance increased on the CIFS writes to the NetApp if it's possible.

I have tried every tweak I could find, and nothing seems to change the rate at which I can write to the NetApp via CIFS. I have included some NetApp information:

slot 8: Gigabit Ethernet Controller II e8 MAC Address: 00:03:47:25:36:6a (auto-1000sx-fd-up) slot 9: NVRAM Memory Size: 32 MB

netapp1> options cifs cifs.audit.autosave.file.extension cifs.audit.autosave.file.limit 0 cifs.audit.autosave.onsize.enable off cifs.audit.autosave.onsize.threshold 500k cifs.audit.autosave.ontime.enable off cifs.audit.autosave.ontime.interval cifs.audit.enable off cifs.audit.file_access_events.enable on cifs.audit.logon_events.enable on cifs.audit.logsize 524288 cifs.audit.saveas /etc/log/adtlog.evt cifs.bypass_traverse_checking on cifs.comment cifs.guest_account cifs.home_dir cifs.home_dir_namestyle ntname cifs.home_dirs_public_for_admin on cifs.idle_timeout 1800 cifs.max_mpx 50 cifs.netbios_aliases cifs.netbios_over_tcp.enable on cifs.nfs_root_ignore_acl on cifs.oplocks.enable off cifs.oplocks.opendelta 8 cifs.per_client_stats.enable off cifs.perm_check_ro_del_ok on cifs.perm_check_use_gid on cifs.restrict_anonymous.enable off cifs.save_case on cifs.scopeid cifs.search_domains cifs.show_snapshot off cifs.shutdown_msg_level 2 cifs.sidcache.enable on cifs.sidcache.lifetime 1440 cifs.snapshot_file_folding.enable off cifs.symlinks.cycleguard on cifs.symlinks.enable on cifs.tcp_window_size 64240 cifs.trace_dc_connection off cifs.trace_login off cifs.wins_servers <edited>

netapp1> options ip ip.fastpath.enable on ip.ipsec.enable off ip.match_any_ifaddr on ip.path_mtu_discovery.enable on ip.ping_throttle.alarm_interval 0 ip.ping_throttle.drop_level 10 ip.tcp.newreno.enable on ip.tcp.sack.enable off

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. If I need to supply more information, please just ask.

Thanks,

Tim