[Beowulf] Gigabit switch recommendations

[Bruce Allen]

> On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 10:01:03PM -0600, Bruce Allen wrote:
>> After discussions with some of their technical people, the conclusion was
>> that the switch had enough buffer memory to run wire speed with MTU=1500
>> but not with MTU=9000.
>>
>> Our testing results are here:
>> http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/~parmor/Network-performance/netperf.html
>
> But according to that graph, the Dell 2716 switch gave performance
> substantially below wire speed for ALL MTU sizes, including 1500.  So
> what's up with Dell's "wire speed but only at MTU=1500" story?

You'll have to ask Dell! I agree that their explanation does not make 
sense, for exactly the reason that you gave.  We didn't see wire speed 
performance even at MTU=1500.

Cheers,
 	Bruce