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Hi All,

A customer asked me about the size of the Ethernet frames used between 2 HSX clusters during Auxiliary Copies.

From what I understand, the customer is concerned that the frames are too small. And that in relation to certain network components, the throughput obtained is not very high if the frames are small.

And he asks me to put the question to Commvault ...As I understand it, this is independent of Commvault. But I'd like to check my understanding to the community.

Ethernet has a minimum frame size of 64 bytes. It also has a maximum frame size of 1518 bytes. (if jumbo frame is not configured).

For Auxiliary Copy jobs between HSX clusters, Commvault uses 128kB data blocks.

These data blocks are sent to the Rocky Linux kernel, which splits them into 1500-byte segments (if jumbo frame is not configured) and sends them to the Ethernet interface driver.

Can you please confirm my correct understanding? Is there any reason why Ethernet frames should not be the maximum size?

Regards,

Luc

Hi All,

Can anyone answer this question, please?

Thanks, and regards,

Luc

Hi @luhenn,

Jumbo frames are supported. Documentation talks about this here:
https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/jumbo_frame_support_for_hyperscale_x.html

 

Does Commvault HyperScale X support jumbo frames?

Jumbo frames are supported on both the data protection and storage pool networks.

However, in order to use Jumbo frames, it must be enabled everywhere, which includes the sending device, receiving device and every network switch, router and firewall in between.

For this reason Jumbo frames are recommended only on the storage pool network as it is relatively simple to implement. As the nodes only talk to each other on a private network, Jumbo frames have to enabled on the HyperScale nodes and the storage pool connections such as the switch(s) they are connected to.

On the data protection network, if for example there are 5000 clients, all the 5000 clients must have Jumbo frames enabled, along with the network devices such as switches, routers, etc. of which some of them may not support Jumbo frames.

For additional information on configuring Jumbo frames, see the guidelines provided in How to enable jumbo frames for network interfaces in Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the Redhat Customer Portal.

Organizations should work with their network administrator to determine if Jumbo frames are supported in their environment. In the event of failure or poor network performance, Commvault support may request that Jumbo frames be disabled, or change the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size, as part of troubleshooting.

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