Broadcom server adapter

[Martyh]

Have you heard of a Broadcom server adapter?
More specifically NetXtreme II 5708.

Does any one know how many users it can serve before becoming too slow?

Tried to look for material all over the web but unsuccessful!

Marty Habicht

 

[Minkey]

I trust you mean one of these.

Does any one know how many users it can serve before becoming too slow?

The speed is not really determined by the number of users it's more to do with bandwidth used (amount of data) and what type of infrastructure it's connected to.

It supports 10/100/1000 Mbps so it can pass up to 1000 meg of data per second, it (on it's own) could support up to 1000 users each passing 1 meg of data per second between themselves and this particular server at the same time. (or 1 user passing 1000 meg per second - a bit like me at the weekend )

However just because it support this data rate doesn't mean that what it will do because it depends on the other infrastructure around it, if this was a web server (for access to the internet) for example and it had a 1 meg DSL line connected to it the (web) data it could pass on to all the users would be a total of 1 meg a second.

If it's a standalone server say a database server the max speed would be determined by the slowest piece of network hardware on the same network. (kind of - but it's easier to think of it like this)

 

[Martyh]

Thanks for that!

It's a standalone database server. Would this be connected to a router? And then all the clients would access it via TCP/IP just as if it were any other computer?

 

[Minkey]

Yep basically it would be connected to a router or hub and if all the NIC's (network interface cards) on the network, including the clients (PC's), support up to 1000meg than that's the maximum data rate you can theoretically get on each PC, if one of the components say the PC's NIC only supports 100meg then they will get a 100meg max.

And then all the clients would access it via TCP/IP just as if it were any other computer?

Basically yes though if you use DNS than you can access it via it's domain name (which is usually preferred).

 

[Martyh]

Huh ! You mean that that the top speed of the S L O W E S T nic would govern everyone's speed...

 

[Martyh]

Huh!! You mean that the access speed even to the very fast 1 Gbps is limited by
the S L O W E S T nic say 10 Mbps... tell me it isn't so. Say 2 or 3 slow nics were accessing the 1 Gbps --- you'd have to wait until the 3rd machine was done. Do we get any relief from TOE?

 

[Minkey]

Huh!! You mean that the access speed even to the very fast 1 Gbps is limited by
the S L O W E S T nic say 10 Mbps... tell me it isn't so. Say 2 or 3 slow nics were accessing the 1 Gbps --- you'd have to wait until the 3rd machine was done. Do we get any relief from TOE?

Erm not quite it's bit difficult to explain but it all depends on topography:

Server (1000mbps) > router (1000mbps) > client machine 1 (1000mdps) = 1000mbps connection

Server (1000mbps) > router (100mbps) > client machine 2 (10mbps) = 10mbps

Server (1000mbps) > router (10mbps) > client machine 3 (100mbps) = 10mbps

Now lets say all 3 machine download a 10meg file at the same time all 3 machines will have a download speed of 10meg/ second

If they all download a 100meg file:

Machine 1 - 100meg/ second
Machine 2 and 3 - 10meg/second

If they all downloaded a 1000meg file:

The bandwidth of 1000meg is shared between all 3 machines but the max 2 and 3 can download at is still 10meg/second, exactly how much speed each connection actually gets can depending on how the network is configured (load balancing) so:

All 3 machines download rate would drop a little say:

Machine 1 - 988meg/second
Machine 2 and 3 - 6meg/second

Total 1000meg/second output from the server, this is only a rough example and it does depend on how the network is configured.