Top 5 IT Infrastructure

Performance Issues

Our Analysis
The data provided in this presentation was gathered from over
4,000 network engagements
We compile the data from physical network components, virtual
infrastructure, unified communications and Cloud IaaS
environments
We provide benchmarks using our data to help companies
establish their own benchmark and identify issues to help in
troubleshooting and planning for change

True Top 5 Performance issues

Hidden Network Oversubscription
Clear Network Overutilization
VMware Storage Latency
VMware Memory Oversubscription
Critical Interface Packet Loss

Hidden Network Oversubscription

What is Network Oversubscription?
Switch

Backplane
1 Gbps
4Gbps

Ports

Are You Suffering from Network

Oversubscription?
32% of Organizations have Oversubscribed Line Cards
130 The average number of interfaces that drop packets due
to the oversubscription (Per Organization!)
Total Oversubscribed Ports
14%

WS-X4548-GB-RJ45V
Oversubscribed 8:1
WS-X4648-RJ45V+E
Oversubscribed 2:1

15%
56%
15%

WS-X4548-GB-RJ45
Oversubscribed 8:1
WS-X6148-GE-TX
Oversubscribed 8:1

Look for Known Offenders

1200
1000
800
600
400

500
373

200

WS-X6748-GE-TX
WS-X6148A-GE-45AF
WS-X6348-RJ-45
WS-X6724-SFP
WS-X6148-GE-TX
WS-X6148A-GE-TX
WS-X6548-GE-TX

33 % of Cisco 6500
Ports are on
Oversubscribed Line
Cards

985

304

247

223

188

It is important to note that the 6148A-GE and the 6548-GE are both engineered with 8:1 oversubscription ratios and, as such,
while suitable at the access layer, these linecards would not be recommended to deploy as uplinks or within the distribution and
core layers Cisco QoS Design Guide (Telepresence) http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Video/tpqoscampus.html

Network Overutilization
68 % of organizations suffer from Overutilization
Out of this 68% only an average of....

0.66% of the organizations interfaces are Overutilized

Of these interfaces only.

49% are LAN interfaces

Network Overutilization
This bandwidth chart was calculating using a 30 second load intervals
It experienced 9,766,038 packets dropped due to overutilization in the ~11 day period

VMware Storage Latency

How many people monitor their storage latency for servers?

67 % of VMware deployments have severe storage latency

Average storage latency on these devices was 278ms.

278ms!!

VMware Memory Oversubscription

Memory oversubscription is exactly as it sounds.
youve provisioned and used more memory than you have.
The metrics you look at are Average Swap Wait Time delay that occurs with memory swap - Goal: 0ms
Read / Write Latency Latency to disk - Goal: <20ms

Critical Interface Packet Loss

Q: What is considered Critical interface packet loss?
A: Errors or discards on aggregation links including:
1) Infrastructure uplinks
2) Layer 3 interfaces
3) Server egress ports
4) Layer 2 forwarding 5+ hosts (ex. Unknown or unmanaged segments)
Types of packet loss

Errors

What is it?: CRC, malformed frame, collision

What can be the issue?: Layer1/layer2 issue
Clocking or duplex mismatch
Half duplex technology
Cost to fix / time to fix Low / Low-moderate

Discards
Implicit discard of a packet
Overutilization
Oversubscription
Queuing or policing mechanism
Misconfiguration
Moderate / High

Critical Interface Packet Loss

89.7% of organizations have resolvable packet loss on critical interfaces
Average Number of Interfaces with Pack Loss
68
70
60
50

42

38

40

27

30

19

20

12

10

10
0
Critical
Uplinks with
Discards

Critical
Uplinks with
Errors

Router
Interfaces
with
Discards

Router
Interfaces
with Errors

Server Links Server Links

Shared
with
with Errors Uplinks with
Discards
Discards

Shared
Uplinks with
Errors

Contact RISC Networks

(866) 808-1227
1 Rankin Ave, 2nd Floor
Asheville, NC 28801
info@riscnetworks.com