2 Servers Different NIC Transfer Speeds

[ITGURU]

I have 2 ML350 G6 servers and when transferring files from PC to each server both give different transfer speeds.

I've cross checked all OS and NIC settings/drivers but get the following

Only difference between the 2 models are processor and RAM.

 

Server 1

Intel E5504 CPU with 12 GB RAM - 1 onboard NIC connected. - P410i Controller No battery.

ISO file transfer from PC to server 1 - 80-100MB/S

 

Server 2

Intel E5520 CPU with 30GB RAM - 1 of the onboard NICs connected P410i with 512MB Cache and Battery.

ISO File Transfer from PC to server 2 - 40-50MB/s

 

Both NICs are identical (onboard) and all Settings in the driver properties are exactly the same on both.

I've cross swapped network cables with same results but speeds are repeatable to each server.

 

What else could be different and causing the difference in speeds to each physical system?

[jamesfed]

Anything on the switch that could rate limit? Also worth checking firmware versions (BIOS/the NICs themselves) and drivers. Maybe at a long shot the network cables themselves?

[ITGURU]

Anything on the switch that could rate limit? Also worth checking firmware versions (BIOS/the NICs themselves) and drivers. Maybe at a long shot the network cables themselves?

 

Both servers are on same BIOS version, NICs are on same firmware version (downloaded and re-flashed) both systems. Swapped switch connections over too.

 

Run out of ideas hence why here!

[forkies]

Are the hdd on the servers the same, could be write speed of the drives?

[ITGURU]

Are the hdd on the servers the same, could be write speed of the drives?

 

Yes, same 300GB 10K drives in both servers - the one with the slowest transfer speed is running in RAID 10 array, the fastest server can be to just a single drive and getting the full gig speed!

[FN-GM]

To determine if it is a network issue run LanBench on each server to test the speed. Test it with a 3rd host and not each other. Then compare the results.

[Oaktech]

I would be tempted to say that this is something to do with HDD config somewhere. Although I've never really set much store by the windows copy dialogue.

 

 

I'd be tempted to use a third party tool to confirm what you are seeing - something like this:

 

LAN Speed Test (Lite)

[Steve21]

P410i Controller No battery.

 

vs

 

P410i with 512MB Cache and Battery.

 

I may be missing the obvious but surely they're gonna have different Write setup enabled? One will be WriteiThrough and one Write-Back ?

 

Steve