Measuring the Impact of Memory on RDMA, TCP and UDP Network Performance

From a network performance perspective, the recommended memory population for Lenovo® ThinkSystem™ servers is usually one DIMM per memory channel (1 DPC) at a minimum. However, customers may want a smaller quantity of DIMMs because they do not require the memory capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the precise effect on network performance with various memory populations and then to provide a guide for customers to follow to select a suitable memory configuration according to their workload.

RDMA, TCP and UDP network performance data using 64K packet size is measured on two Lenovo ThinkSystem SD530 servers with a direct point-to-point connection. Tests were performed using a Mellanox ConnectX-4 EDR VPI adapter and each test was performed 30 times. The results show that RDMA performance is independent of the memory population, but a balanced memory configuration across the populated memory channels is a key factor for TCP/UDP performance.

This paper is for customers who run applications with high-performance networking needs and need to know how the memory configuration may affect performance. Readers should have a basic understanding of memory and networking technologies.

Introduction
Methodology
Results
Conclusion

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Related product families

Product families related to this document are the following:

• Ethernet Adapters
• InfiniBand & Omni-Path Adapters
• Memory