Summary
In this section I'm comparing the two cached methods, NCP-on-Linux, and CIFS-on-NetWare. I'll do the uncached ones in the next section.
The comparison here is not as much apples-to-apples as I'd like. Microsoft caching, and Novell's caching use different mechanisms, and we're also going over different protocols and platforms as well. Because of this, the trends aren't nearly as clear cut as they were in the previous sections where we compared the differences between platforms.
For this test NCP-on-Linux is the winner. Especially for small record sizes or small files. For 4K records, the performance increase is 33% and for files 512K and under performance increase averages about 10% over CIFS-on-NetWare. Overall, performance is better by 10-15%.
Overall, NCP-on-Linux appears to beat out CIFS-on-NetWare. The big exception is the ReRead test, where NCP-on-Linux doesn't even attempt to cache and the results are raw-IO. On a client station with small amounts of RAM, these results may be different since the caching being tested here is a function of the local machine rather than the servers. The servers do play a role, however, so this does need to be included.
Part 5: Comparing Uncached, NCP-on-NetWare vs CIFS-on-Linux
In this section I'm comparing the two cached methods, NCP-on-Linux, and CIFS-on-NetWare. I'll do the uncached ones in the next section.
The comparison here is not as much apples-to-apples as I'd like. Microsoft caching, and Novell's caching use different mechanisms, and we're also going over different protocols and platforms as well. Because of this, the trends aren't nearly as clear cut as they were in the previous sections where we compared the differences between platforms.
Write: This test measures the performance of writing a new file. When a new file is written not only does the data need to be stored but also the overhead information for keeping track of where the data is located on the storage media. This overhead is called the 'metadata' It consists of the directory information, the space allocation and any other data associated with a file that is not part of the data contained in the file. It is normal for the initial write performance to be lower than the performance of rewriting a file due to this overhead information.For this test, NCP-on-Linux outperforms CIFS-on-NetWare in the areas of most interest. As with a few tests so far, the 'sweet spot' seems to be with a file-size under 32MB and a record size under 512KB. NCP-on-Linux particularly out-performs CIFS-on-NetWare in the small file ranges. Improvements of 200-400% are pretty common within the sweet-spot range, with a few combinations (such as 512KB file, 64KB record size) going as high as 1300%.
Re-write: This test measures the performance of writing a file that already exists. When a file is written that already exists the work required is less as the metadata already exists. It is normal for the rewrite performance to be higher than the performance of writing a new file.For this test, CIFS-on-NetWare outperforms NCP-on-Linux. However, the magnitude isn't nearly to the scale of the Write test. Record size again has something to do with the performance. The two methods reach near parity near a record size of 1MB. Though for files over 32MB, CIFS-on-NetWare provideconsistentnt 5-10% performance increase over NCP-on-Linux across the board.
Read: This test measures the performance of reading an existing file.For this test there is no clear winner. NCP-on-Linux generally outperforms CIFS-on-NetWare when the record-size is filesize, or filesize/2. It also has small increases, 5-10%, for 16KB record-sizes and files around 8MB. Generally speaking, though, CIFS-on-NetWare outperforms NCP-on-Linux by an average of 7% across the board.
Re-Read: This test measures the performance of reading a file that was recently read. It is normal for the performance to be higher as the operating system generally maintains a cache of the data for files that were recently read. This cache can be used to satisfy reads and improves the performance.This is very clear-cut. CIFS-on-NetWare blows the pants off of NCP-on-Linux for this test. The average performance increase for everything right up to playing with 512MB file is about 9000%. Why is this? Because NCP-on-Linux does NOT cache this particular test, and CIFS-on-NetWare does. This is a design choice from Novell, presumably.
Random Read: This test measures the performance of reading a file with accesses being made to random locations within the file. The performance of a system under this type of activity can be impacted by several factors such as: Size of operating system'’s cache, number of disks, seek latencies, and others.
For this test NCP-on-Linux is the winner. Especially for small record sizes or small files. For 4K records, the performance increase is 33% and for files 512K and under performance increase averages about 10% over CIFS-on-NetWare. Overall, performance is better by 10-15%.
Random Write: This test measures the performance of writing a file with accesses being made to random locations within the file. Again the performance of a system under this type of activity can be impacted by several factors such as: Size of operating system'’s cache, number of disks, seek latencies, and others.NCP-on-Linux is the winner in the ranges important to me. CIFS-on-NetWare has better performance for large files at large record-sizes. NCP-on-Linux is clearly better with record sizes 16K and under. 72% better at 4K record size, 55% better at 8K, 37% better at 16K, and 11% better at 32K.
Backwards Read: This test measures the performance of reading a file backwards. This may seem like a strange way to read a file but in fact there are applications that do this. MSC Nastran is an example of an application that reads its files backwards. With MSC Nastran, these files are very large (Gbytes to Tbytes in size). Although many operating systems have special features that enable them toThis is another test where NCP-on-Linux beats out CIFS-on-NetWare. The margin is not great, but consitent. As with the previous test, the best performance is with a 4KB record size. You have to get to the 16MB record-size to get a category that CIFS-on-NetWare outperforms NCP-on-Linux, and even there the difference is 3%. The overall performance increase of NCP-on-Linux is a shade under 9%.
read a file forward more rapidly, there are very few operating systems that detect and enhance the performance of reading a file backwards.
Record Rewrite: This test measures the performance of writing and re-writing a particular spot within a file. This hot spot can have very interesting behaviors. If the size of the spot is small enough to fit in the CPU data cache then the performance is very high. If the size of the spot is bigger than the CPU data cache but still fits in the TLB then one gets a different level of performance. If the size of the spot is larger than the CPU data cache and larger than the TLB but still fits in the operating system cache then one gets another level of performance, and if the size of the spot is bigger than the operating system cache then one gets yet another level of performance.This test showed a mixed result. For file-sizes 8MB and under, NCP-on-Linux clearly has a lead across all record-sizes. Results get a lot more spotty when file sizes go over that line. Performance is near parity when record-sizes are at 512KB and larger. CIFS-on-NetWare does best in the record-size 512KB and larger, and also in file-sizes 32MB and up. For the most common of file-access types, NCP-on-Linux would provide the best performance.
Overall, NCP-on-Linux appears to beat out CIFS-on-NetWare. The big exception is the ReRead test, where NCP-on-Linux doesn't even attempt to cache and the results are raw-IO. On a client station with small amounts of RAM, these results may be different since the caching being tested here is a function of the local machine rather than the servers. The servers do play a role, however, so this does need to be included.
Part 5: Comparing Uncached, NCP-on-NetWare vs CIFS-on-Linux