Performance Guidelines for Bonding

To get the best performance, configure the SecureXL Affinity in static mode for the slave interfaces.

Setting Affinities

If you are running SecureXL in a multi-core system, after you define bonds, set affinities manually. Use the sim affinity -s command.

Note - The sim affinity commands take effect only if the SecureXL is enabled and actually running. SecureXL begins running when you install a Policy for the first time.

For optimal performance, set affinities according to the following guidelines:

1. Run:

   sim affinity -s

2. Whenever possible, dedicate one processing core to each interface. See R80.20 Performance Tuning Administration Guide.
3. sk33520.
4. If there are more interfaces than CPU cores, one or more CPU cores handle two interfaces.

   Use interface pairs of the same position with internal and external bonds.

   1. To view interface positions in a bond, run:

      cat /proc/net/bonding/<bond name>.

   2. Note the sequence of the interfaces in the output, and compare this for the two bonds (external bond and its respective internal bond).

      Interfaces that appear in the same position in the two bonds are interface pairs and set to be handled by one processing core.

   For example, you might have four processing cores (0-3) and six interfaces (0-5), distributed among two bonds:

   bond0	bond1
   eth0	eth3
   eth1	eth4
   eth2	eth5

   Two of the CPU cores will need to handle two interfaces each. An optimal configuration can be:

   bond0		bond1
   eth0	core 0	eth3	core 0
   eth1	core 1	eth4	core 1
   eth2	core 2
   		eth5	core 3