jumbo frames on esxi server

hi,

We are in the process of converting several servers into vm servers. our process for this is the following:

create image of server using acronis
use vmware converter to convert image into vmware format
use converter to upload the image to the server.

the process is uploading images to the esxi server takes a long time and we are looking for ways to speed it up. its on a gigaethernet network but we would like to get it done faster. id like to know of esxi support jumbo frames? im thinking if we can enable jumbo frames on the switch, esxi server and the server im uploading from, it should be done alot faster. one other thing i wanted to know is if esxi supports external drives(like external hard drives) so we can copy the images locally instead of over the network.

thanks

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astorrs

How big is the image file that is created and how long does it take to copy? (Just want to see if it sounds about right or if there might be a configuration change we can make).

Yes, it supports jumbo frames (it basically has to for iSCSI to be worthwhile).

By external drives I assume you're thinking USB drives, which are not supported (there is no support at all for USB in ESX), you might be able to get an eSATA drive to work depending on the controller, but I haven't exactly seen a lot of eSATA ports in servers...

tiersten

Jumbo frames isn't a supported option for iSCSI is it? You can force it but I don't think VMware specifically say its okay. You're allowed jumbo frames for vswitches though.

How fast is it going anyway? Jumbo frames improves it a bit but its not going to be a 10x improvement.

astorrs

tiersten wrote:

Jumbo frames isn't a supported option for iSCSI is it? You can force it but I don't think VMware specifically say its okay. You're allowed jumbo frames for vswitches though.

It's supported for iSCSI HBAs and for VMs, not for the software initiator - not to say it doesn't work though (I wouldn't suggest doing this in production of course)...

From the Service Console:

1. Change the MTU on the vSwitch "esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 <vSwitch>"

2. Do an "esxcfg-vswitch -l" and a "esxcfg-nics -l" to make sure the vSwitch and the physical NICs associated with it are now set to an MTU of 9000.

3. Create the port group and add it to the vSwitch "esxcfg-vswitch -a <port group name> <vSwitch>"

4. Create a VMkernel interface and associated port group "esxcfg-vmknic -a -i <ip address> -n <subnet mask> -m 9000 <port group name>"

5. Test it "vmkping -s 9000 <ip address of iSCSI target on storage array>"

tiersten

astorrs wrote:

tiersten wrote:

Jumbo frames isn't a supported option for iSCSI is it? You can force it but I don't think VMware specifically say its okay. You're allowed jumbo frames for vswitches though.

It's supported for iSCSI HBAs, not for the software initiator - not to say it doesn't work though (I wouldn't suggest doing this in production of course)...

Ahh. Yeah. Only software iSCSI