Abstract

Hewlett-Packard Co. commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the performance benefits of multifunction server adapters in ProLiant servers featuring hardware-accelerated iSCSI over traditional software-based iSCSI initiators communicating to StorageWorks storage arrays.

Tolly Group engineers tested two end-to-end iSCSI storage solutions from HP. The first was a ProLiant server with an HP NC373T Gigabit Server Adapter communicating with a StorageWorks 1200 All in One (AiO) Storage System. Engineers also tested a ProLiant DL380 G5 server with an HP NC373i Gigabit Server Adapter communicating with a StorageWorks 2012i Modular Smart Array (MSA2012i). Tests compared the throughput and CPU utilization of software-based iSCSI (Microsoft iSCSI initiator) against hardware-accelerated iSCSI under various disk access scenarios, using and Iometer test tool.

Tests were conducted in April 2008.