Server recommended configuration for 2 x 100GE ?

[Damien Billon]

Hi Srivats,

  What would be the recommended hardware configuration to be able to generate and analyze 2 x 100 Gbps of traffic ? I would need 2 x 100GE ports on a PC that would transmit and receive at 100 Gbps ... thus 200 Gbps full-duplex.

  We consider buying Ostinato Business licence for that matter.

  I'm looking for recommandations for the type of Ethernet card and CPU / RAM.

  I plan to select this server from the Dell or HP portolio ... I would be interested if you have tested any configuration from these vendors.

BR, Damien.

[Srivats P]

Hi Damien,

What is your use case for the 200Gbpx full duplex?

For your 100Gbps tests, what packet size do you wish to use? Does the packet size matter for your test?

Best regards,

Srivats

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[Damien Billon]

Hi Srivats,

  We want to test network devices that have 100GE ports: transmit and receive simultaneously at 100 Gbps max.

  We need to be able to generate an iMix with 6 packet sizes (from 64 bytes to 1500 bytes): for each packet size a percentage of the total traffic is expected.

BR, Damien.

[Srivats P]

Hi Damien,

  We want to test network devices that have 100GE ports: transmit and receive simultaneously at 100 Gbps max.

So you are just testing bandwidth/throughput with a basic routing or switching configuration?

 

 We need to be able to generate an iMix with 6 packet sizes (from 64 bytes to 1500 bytes): for each packet size a percentage of the total traffic is expected.

Can you share the imix traffic pattern - packet size and number of packets for all 6?

The reason why packet size is important to the hardware specs requirement is that like most networking software, Ostinato performance is also packets/sec (pps) dependent instead of Gbps; a 64 byte packets at 100Gbps is ~150 million packets/sec, while 1518 byte packets at 100Gbps is ~8 million packets/sec - a HUGE difference in the no of CPU cores required.

Srivats

 

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[Damien Billon]

Hi Srivats,

Yes I'm just testing the maximum throughput on a routing device (monitoring drops and ideally the transmission delay).

I have several iMixes with an average packet size between 400 and 1000 bytes so from 10 to 31 MPPS on  (on each direction).

But I would also be interested in knowing the configuration expected to reach 150 MPPS.

BR, Damien.

[Srivats P]

Hi Damien,

For your IMIX avg packet sizes of 400 to 1000 bytes, you need 6 to 8 cores per-port (both Tx + Rx)

For 150Mpps (100G at 64B pkt size), you need 32 cores per-port (both Tx + Rx)

Please note server grade CPUs are preferred; i5/i7/i9 will work but the difference between P-cores/E-cores along with OS scheduling introduces variability.

Supported 100G NICs are Intel E810 and Nvidia ConnectX-6.

Make sure to check the NIC datasheet for the PCIe specs and any bifurcations required. Also note that 2 x single port NIC card sometimes perform better than 1 x dual port NIC - if you have enough PCIe ports of the required specs.

RAM - 16GB

Please use the stock kernel driver for the supported Linux distribution you choose (Ubuntu 24.04 preferred).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,
Srivats

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[Damien Billon]

Hi Srivats,

  Ok thanks for this feedback.

  We plan to buy a server with Xeon CPU so it should be ok.

  Would you recommend a single CPU with 64 cores or 2 CPUs with 32 cores each ?

BR, Damien.

[Srivats P]

Hi Damien,

At this time, Ostinato is unaware of multiple CPUs and NUMA nodes.

So it is better to buy a single CPU with 64 cores AND a single NUMA node.

Srivats

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[Srivats P]

Hi Damien,

Just following up to see if you were able to get a suitable server for Ostinato?

Srivats

[Damien Billon]

Hi Srivats,

  Actually I still have to request an estimate but your last remark was very important: I'm used to buy servers with 2 CPUs.

  And BTW I also discovered that most network cards from Dell now support QSFP56 only instead of QSFP28 ... but the network devices I'm testing are not compatible with QSFP56. So another point to address.

  Anyway it should be a project for 2026 in my company.

  Thanks for your help.

BR, Damien.