Intel® Ethernet 700 Series

Linux Performance Tuning Guide

ID Date Version Classification
334019 12/09/2024 1.1 Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents
Notices and Disclaimers Revision History ​Introduction Initial Checklist ​Baseline Performance Measurements and Tuning Methodology Tuning i40e Driver Settings Platform Tuning (i40e Non-Specific) ​Adapter Bonding Performance Troubleshooting Recommendations for Common Performance Scenarios
Notices and Disclaimers
Revision History
​Introduction
​Introduction ​Related References
​Related References
Initial Checklist
Update Driver/Firmware Versions ​ Read the README ​Check That Your PCI Express (PCIe) Slot Is x8 ​Check System Hardware Capabilities ​Ensure DDP Package is Loading Properly
Update Driver/Firmware Versions
​ Read the README
​Check That Your PCI Express (PCIe) Slot Is x8
​Check System Hardware Capabilities
​Check System Hardware Capabilities ​ Kernel Boot Parameters
​ Kernel Boot Parameters
​Ensure DDP Package is Loading Properly
​Baseline Performance Measurements and Tuning Methodology
​Network Performance Benchmarks ​Tuning Methodology
​Network Performance Benchmarks
​Network Performance Benchmarks ​iPerf2 ​iPerf3 ​netperf
​iPerf2
​iPerf3
​netperf
​Tuning Methodology
Tuning i40e Driver Settings
​IRQ Affinity ​Tx/Rx Queues ​Interrupt Moderation ​Ring Size ​Flow Control ​Jumbo Frames
​IRQ Affinity
​Tx/Rx Queues
​Interrupt Moderation
​Ring Size
​Flow Control
​Jumbo Frames
Platform Tuning (i40e Non-Specific)
​BIOS Settings ​Power Management Intel® Turbo Boost ​Firewalls ​Application Settings ​Kernel Version ​Operating System/Kernel Settings Network Device Backlog Platform-Specific Configurations and Tuning
​BIOS Settings
​Power Management
​Power Management ​C-State Control ​PCIe Power Management ​CPU Frequency Scaling Additional Power Management Guidance
​C-State Control
​PCIe Power Management
​CPU Frequency Scaling
Additional Power Management Guidance
Intel® Turbo Boost
​Firewalls
​Application Settings
​Kernel Version
​Operating System/Kernel Settings
Network Device Backlog
Platform-Specific Configurations and Tuning
Platform-Specific Configurations and Tuning 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors AMD EPYC
4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors
AMD EPYC
​Adapter Bonding
Performance Troubleshooting
​CPU Utilization ​i40e Counters ​Network Counters ​System Logs ​Intel svr-info Tool
​CPU Utilization
​i40e Counters
​Network Counters
​System Logs
​Intel svr-info Tool
Recommendations for Common Performance Scenarios
​IP Forwarding ​Low Latency
​IP Forwarding
​Low Latency

​i40e Counters

The i40e driver provides a long list of counters for interface debug and monitoring through the ethtool -S ethX command. It can be helpful to watch the output while a workload is running and/or compare the counter values before and after a workload run.

  • To get a full dump of i40e counters: ethtool -S ethX
  • To watch just non-zero counters: watch -d (ethtool -S ethX) | egrep -v :\ 0 | column

Some things to look for:

  • ​​rx_​dropped means the CPU is not servicing buffers fast enough.
  • ​​port.rx_​dropped means something is not fast enough in the slot/memory/system.

​Network Counters