Business Strategy Report - Message Amplification

1 Edison Group, Inc When CIFS Performance Matters Business Strategy Report For Microsoft February 10, 2006 Edison Group, Inc / Business Strategy Report When CIFS Performance Matters Printed in the United States of America. Copyright 2005 Edison Group, Inc. New York. Prepared for Microsoft. Edison Group offers no warranty either expressed or implied on the information contained herein and shall be held harmless for errors resulting from its use. Microsoft is distributing this document and offers no warranty either expressed or implied on the information contained herein and shall be held harmless for errors resulting from its use. All products are trademarks of their respective owners. First Publication: February 2006 Produced by: Stewart Miller, Senior Analyst; Andrew Podosenin, Lead Analyst; Craig Norris, Editor; Barry Cohen, Editor-in-Cheif Edison Group, Inc / When CIFS Performance Matters Business Strategy Report Table of Contents Executive 1 Purpose of the 1 Who Should Read this Report ?

2 1 General Overview of SMB and 2 DEFINING SMB AND COLLABORATIVE FILE NETWORK FILE SYSTEM ENHANCED FILE SHARING NetBench Performance 11 Performance Analysis 11 Test Lab 12 STRESS TESTING STRESS TESTING NODES AND CLIENT TUNING NETWORKING PRELIMINARY TESTS AND ACCURACY AND VARIABILITY OF NETBENCH TEST 18 19 FILE SERVER HARDWARE AND TUNING ADDITIONAL Edison Group, Inc When CIFS Performance Matters Business Strategy Report Edison Group, Inc 1 February 1, 2006 Executive Summary Most networking environments today are comprised of Windows clients and servers.

3 The majority of traffic served across these networks is Microsoft SMB, the built in Windows file serving protocol. Windows based servers, functioning in this type of environment, offer the best CIFS performance values. These values can be quantified with benchmarking tools such as NetBench. Real world networking environments that are Windows based can not be measured with performance from NFS file sharing protocols for UNIX because such values are irrelevant in a Windows network. Purpose of the Report The goal of this paper is to measure CIFS performance in a real world computing environment, as reported by the NetBench benchmark. This paper reports the file serving throughput of 64 bit Windows file servers with varying numbers of clients. Who Should Read this Report ? This Report should be read by IT Professionals, CxOs, and purchasing managers who are considering network storage solutions and who wish to understand the value of various vendor reported performance characteristics.

4 Edison Group, Inc When CIFS Performance Matters Business Strategy Report Edison Group, Inc 2 February 1, 2006 General Overview of SMB and CIFS Defining SMB and CIFS Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol is the mother environment of the Windows file serving protocol. While Microsoft continually improves SMB with each release of Windows, a subset of it called CIFS (Common Internet File System) functions as the native file transfer protocol mechanism for clients to request access to files from the network server no matter what the underlying operating system platform.

5 Microsoft has modified SMB on the Windows 2003 server to offer enhanced services, increased performance, and better security. CIFS is the means by which remote file systems allow groups of users to access, collaborate, and share documents or files across the LAN. CIFS is an open, cross platform protocol based on the native file sharing protocols that come standard in Windows as well as several other operating system environments. Client/Server file transfer performance is very important in any Windows based environment. The comparative metric you need is the CIFS number. This performance value quantifies exactly how quickly you can transfer files between a Windows client and other operating system platforms. Collaborative File Sharing Business people will find it advantageous that CIFS enables collaboration on the LAN by establishing a remote file access protocol that is already compatible with the way in which applications share information and data on local hard drives across network file servers.

6 The value in CIFS is its level of: High performance Multi user read/writer operations Locking File sharing capabilities These features are defining characteristics of the majority of enterprise computer networks meant for mission critical tasks. CIFS functions over TCP/IP and uses the global Domain Naming Service (DNS) to enhance scalability for most any need. It is optimized to support slower connections and is a means to yield the best performance possible in nearly any computing environment. Edison Group, Inc When CIFS Performance Matters Business Strategy Report Edison Group, Inc 3 February 1, 2006 Network File System Traffic Determining the best choice of a network file system for various deployed clients involves a careful examination of the types of traffic on your network.

7 The first step is to review network file system requirements specifically, what features and functions they are expected to deliver. Network file systems were developed to let computer users identify, connect, and access files stored on remotely networked computers just as if the files were stored on those users local machines. However, it is important to note that specific requirements must first be met in order to select the best solution for your needs. Distributed files systems involve clients, servers, and storage devices dispersed across the LAN. These network services all draw into a central data repository, for which there are multiple and independent storage devices. Performance matters, because a networked file system is implemented as part of the operating system. This means there is a dedicated operating system whose task is to manage the communication between the client and the file servers.

8 In order to achieve the maximum level of performance, it is necessary to optimize network communications using a native file transfer protocol that is integrated into your systems to facilitate data transfer. The most important features include: Feature Description File access File operations include open, close, read, write, and seek. File and record locking After a file or record is locked, non locking applications are denied access to the file. Safe caching, read ahead, and write behind Allows read/write access to a file from multiple clients simultaneously. File change notification Applications can register with a server to be notified when a file or directory contents are modified. Protocol version negotiation When client and server first come into network contact, they negotiate the version (dialect) to be used. Different dialects can include new Message types as well as changes to the field formats in other dialects.

9 Extended Non file system attributes, such as the author s name, can be Edison Group, Inc When CIFS Performance Matters Business Strategy Report Edison Group, Inc 4 February 1, 2006 Feature Description attributes added to the built in file attributes, such as creation and modification times. Distributed replicated virtual volumes The protocol supports multi volume file system sub trees which look to clients as if they are on a single volume. If the sub tree files and directories are physically moved or replicated, the CIFS protocol uses referrals to transparently direct a client to the appropriate server.

10 Server name resolution independence Clients may resolve server names using any name resolution mechanism. Using the name resolution server DNS, for example, permits access to file systems over the LAN. Batched requests Multiple file requests may be grouped into a single Message , in order to minimize round trip latencies, even when a later request depends on the results of an earlier one. Unicode file names Unicode strings may be exchanged. Unicode strings include file names, resource names, and user names. Enhanced Communications CIFS enables clients and servers to communicate so they can share files and printing functions. This protocol is most clearly understood through its rich set of features and functionality. The following subsections break CIFS down into its primary attributes and uses in real world computing environments. File Access A file server is an important part of your Business , as it provides file services to clients.