From: MAILBOX@ZEUS.ICE.NL (Zeus Mailbox)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Subject: Re: Performance issue of ethernet
Date: 27 Jan 93 12:41:32 GMT
Reply-To: mailbox@zeus.ice.nl
Organization: ETB-Lubbers Nederland B.V.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
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Sanjay Patel <074SAN@WITSVMA.WITS.AC.ZA> writes:

> We are currently running tests on a NETFRAME machine and I would like to know
> from anyone who have a run any tests on a similar machine and or topology.
> What I  would like to know is the following
> (1) what is the maximum amount of workstaions that you could hang of a 10baseT
>     ethernet segment before performance starts decresing and bridges etc need
>     to be introduced
>     I need to run 70 workstations . Will this be possible? if so what are the
>     performance issues?

You can really stretch ethernet to the limit. Example:
We have a customer where we do all the network cabling for; Sun Microsystems
in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.
They have a thin-coax ethernet with only repeaters on it. They have aprox.
250 sun's on the cable. The models vary from SLC's to 690MP's and Sparc-10's.
The average load is 30-60% peek's to 99% Collision rate's of 10% are normal.
Everything keeps running.
Ethernet, even under extreme stress, is very stable.
For your situation you really need to look at your current situation and make
a good guess of feature load. 10BaseT is no different under load then coax,
choose a concentrator brand that supports good bridges/router as a module in
the concentrator.
Then you can add a router or bridge without any big hassle. Make sure you
have the possibility to add a good network-management module in the
concentrator that supports SNMP and has good client software that runs under
windows/unix.



>  (2)How will an application like DBASE perform with all workstation running
>     and each creating its own database and working on it?

poor. dbase is a interpreter *and* not a client/server app.

>  (3)How will a superserver like a NETFRAME perform if it were to do all the
>     bridging i.e 2 ethernet segments and 1 tokenring segment coming of it
>     Currently I have 2 ethernet servers and 1 token ring server each forming
 it
>     own network and all 3 being briged by a router running ROUTER.EXE with 3
>     cards in it. The performance for this setup is slow especially when I
run >     an I/O intensive application like DBASE.

A good server or a dedicated router (cisco, wellfleet, 3com, retix) will
allways outperform router.exe, even when it runs on a 486/66.
Router.exe was not designed for high performance but as a small/simple/cheap
router for IPX that sits in the red/blue box.
The netframe will also outperform router.exe.


>  (4)Has anyone ran any comparison of different SUPERSERVERS like a NETFRAME or
>     SUN SPARC or RISC 6000 etc . If so what kind of results did you get
>     and what did you opt for in the end and why?
>

To my opinion, they are all pretty capable, its just a matter of
passion/taste. Ofcourse it depends on the models & so on...

Greetings...

Henno.


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