Hi John,

>We are considering Linux on z9, and I noticed you mentioning the overhead of
>VSWITCH LACP - which we are planning to use. Do you have some detailed
>information on this overhead? Is it affected by SET PORT GROUP INTERVAL ?
>Any information would be gratefully received    :-)

The problem is not with LACP per se, but with VSWITCH in general. The problem 
is that communication through VSWITCH is a two step process. One step involves 
moving data from the OSA buffers to CP buffers and is assisted by the OSA 
hardware. The second step involves CP inspecting the data and moving it to/from 
the target stack buffers within the guest. This second step is totally within 
software and inevitably produces a lot of overhead. This becomes quite 
noticeable with the large amounts of data that LACP can handle from a hardware 
point of view. In our case we cut out the middle man and have the data 
delivered to target stack buffers directly by the OSA hardware. The drawback to 
this is that you have to dedicate the OSA chpid to the guest. But then when you 
are trying to move hundreds of megabytes a second to one guest, and OSA's being 
a lot cheaper than IFL's, that is the more acceptable solution.

Best regards,
Pieter Harder

pieter.har...@brabantwater.nl
tel  +31-73-6837133 / +31-6-47272537

Brabant Water N.V.
Postbus 1068
5200 BC  's-Hertogenbosch
http://www.brabantwater.nl
Handelsregister: 16005077

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