Windows Server 2019 vs. Linux vs. FreeBSD Gigabit & 10GbE Networking Performance

[edwaleni]

Was one side of each test always running Ubuntu 18.10, non-tuned ?
Was the tuning done with latency profile, or a throughput profile?

I’m wondering if you use a double Xeon machine as a server and network performance matters, wouldn’t you spend more than $20 on a network card?

Why would he spend $200+ and the only benefit is a fixed copper or fiber connection type?

The largest cost of 10GbE is the physical connection. By buying an adapter that has an empty SFP+ slot, he maintains flexibility of using different physical connection types (which can be expensive) and can still use low cost passive coax for near distant equipment.

Buying a $300+ dual port Intel or Broadcom based adapter is fine and dandy if you need 24x7 support, but for simple throughput testing with proven and supported devices, the Mellanox NIC is perfect.

[indepe]

Was one side of each test always running Ubuntu 18.10, non-tuned ?
Was the tuning done with latency profile, or a throughput profile?

I’m wondering if you use a double Xeon machine as a server and network performance matters, wouldn’t you spend more than $20 on a network card?

[End User]

I just upgraded my home network to 10GbE so the timing of this article is perfect!

My recently retired dual X5650 ESXi rig now has a new lease on life. I'm very interested to see how it performs as an Ubuntu rig equipped with a 10GbE NIC. A 10Gtek Mellanox Connect X2 is now on its way.

[edwaleni]

I have to assume the frame size is at default, 1518 bytes.

Probably not material, but the Mellanox Connect X2 are PCIe v2.0 x8 adapters and they do support packet processing offload.

I use the same Mellanox cards at home and they are very well supported.

Your performance can vary. I have run those same cards on some cheaper consumer type motherboards with plenty of lanes available and I would get bus stalls on some.

But the 10GbE is very usable. I have run remote CUDA across it to increase graphics performance locally and it makes a huge difference.

[vermaden]

As you compare Tuned and not Linux distributions it would be also to see FreeBSD 12 Tuned results.

Use settings from this guide:

https://calomel.org/freebsd_network_tuning.html

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Windows Server 2019 vs. Linux vs. FreeBSD Gigabit & 10GbE Networking Performance

FreeBSD 12.0, Windows Server 2019, and five Linux distributions were tested for comparing the Gigabit and 10GbE networking performance as part of our latest benchmarks. Additionally, the performance was looked at for the Mellanox 10GbE adapter when also using the company's Linux tuning script compared to the out-of-the-box performance on the enterprise Linux distribution releases.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27451