NIC teaming improve performance

garyb · #1 13-May-2008, 01:13 PM

Hi,
We have IIS6 2GB RAM on 3GB Xeon processors which host our front end websites in a DMZ. This then connects to our SQL server on the LAN over 100Mb Full duplex, has worked fine for us. Lately we have had 3rd party design another website for us using .NET & lots of javascript, which now and again times out, not great experience for end user.

They have suggested using NIC teaming to improve the performance and ultimately stopping the timeouts on a machine that coped fine before this app. I have used various tools to monitor the traffic on this server and it appears to be no problem, is there any benefit for teaming NICs to iimprove performance?

Cheers

Fastracksteve · #2 13-May-2008, 01:24 PM

By NIC Teaming do you mean link aggregation?

If you do, well it would depend on lots of other things such as what else is in the network and the size internet pipe.

garyb · #3 13-May-2008, 01:33 PM

Quote:

“

Originally Posted by Fastracksteve

By NIC Teaming do you mean link aggregation?

If you do, well it would depend on lots of other things such as what else is in the network and the size internet pipe.

”

They suggested NIC teaming, on my NIC its called Load balancing, but I think its more or less the same end. They want more throughput on the machine which I dont agree with. The NIC on IIS & SQL boxes are Gigabit but the LAN/DMZ ports on the firewall are only 100Mbps meaning the amount of data getting sent by IIS to SQL is always going to max of of 100Mbps anyway. Increasing available amount to 2GB on IIS is pointless in my eyes?

On your other question, the pipe is 2Mbps leased line and these are the onlky 2 boxes in that enviroment.

Cheers

Fastracksteve · #4 13-May-2008, 01:39 PM

Quote:

“

Originally Posted by garyb

They suggested NIC teaming, on my NIC its called Load balancing, but I think its more or less the same end. They want more throughput on the machine which I dont agree with. The NIC on IIS & SQL boxes are Gigabit but the LAN/DMZ ports on the firewall are only 100Mbps meaning the amount of data getting sent by IIS to SQL is always going to max of of 100Mbps anyway. Increasing available amount to 2GB on IIS is pointless in my eyes?

On your other question, the pipe is 2Mbps leased line and these are the onlky 2 boxes in that enviroment.

Cheers

”

Hi Gary, well I may stand corrected here but I can't see any benefit in what's being suggested either to be honest. You are, in effect going to be doing exactly as you suggest in your post.

Cheers and sorry I couldn't be of more use to you.

garyb · #5 13-May-2008, 02:51 PM

Quote:

“

Originally Posted by Fastracksteve

Hi Gary, well I may stand corrected here but I can't see any benefit in what's being suggested either to be honest. You are, in effect going to be doing exactly as you suggest in your post.

Cheers and sorry I couldn't be of more use to you.

”

No worries, its always nice to hear someone else confirm your thoughts!

Thanx

G

vitamin · #6 12-Jun-2008, 07:33 PM

Im going to add my 2 pence here too. Surley the problem could be 2Mb lease line causing the bottle neck at busy times rather than the DMZ. Just a thought.....

**nugget** · #7 12-Jun-2008, 10:05 PM

Personally I think it's more to do with the new website's programming. If it was working before on the same two servers over the same connection to the internet, the only thing that's really changed (different than before) is the new website.

Might pay to get a second 3rd party in to check it over.

**Sparky** · #8 12-Jun-2008, 10:17 PM

What kind of NIC is in the server just now? Check for driver updates etc.Can you get any SNMP monitoring on the NIC? That would give you the info you need.

I would be surprised if the NIC is causing the issue here but you need the hard facts.

Edit: Any AV on the servers and if so have they be configured correctly?