On 04/25/11 13:07, David Ahern wrote: >>> same host, host-VM: >>> A-C, using VF 488 1085 (seen as high as 1280's) >>> A-C, virtio 150 4282 >> >> We know virtio has a shorter path for this test. > > No complaints about the throughput numbers; the latency is the problem. rx-usecs is the magical parameter. It defaults to 3 for both the igb and igbvf drivers which is the 'magic' performance number -- i.e., the drivers dynamically adapt to the packet rate. Setting it to 10 in the *VM only* (lowest limit controlled by IGBVF_MIN_ITR_USECS) dramatically lowers latency with little-to-no impact to throughput (ie., mostly within the +-10% variation I see between netperf runs with system defaults everywhere). Latency in usecs: default rx-usec=10 host-host 97 105 same host, host-VM 488 158 cross host, host-VM 488 181 cross host, VM-VM 488 255 Changing the default in the host for the physical function kills throughput with no impact to latency. I'd still like to know why 100 usec is the baseline for even host-to-host packets. David -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html