NetPerf - Network Performance

posted Feb 23, 2010 12:54 PM by Xavier C

Download: http://www.chriswolf.com/download/netperf.zip

Bottleneck Battle

By Chris Wolf 09/13/2005

When you suspect a performance problem is related to a network bottleneck, use this simple tool to verify your suspicions.

Chris: I have often found myself having to deal with customers with slow networks that believe their networks are fine. Just last week I w that slow performance was related to a software bug in the product I was installing. Is there an easy way to definitively identify a network customer can be confident in the source of the problem? --Jim Jim: At first I was hesitant to answer your question. Finger pointing has been a long standing tradition in IT, and I wasnt sure that I wanted to do any friends like to "blame the other guy" when they find themselves in a jam. This gives them a few hours (or sometimes even days!) to solve a problem w another vendor.

Now before all of you jump down my throat, I am not condoning this behavior! While blaming the other guy could be used as a diversion tactic, most abilities and, as a result, find in hard to believe that a performance problem exists on their network. When you find yourself in this situation and are lo have had a lot of success using the open source tool Netperf, which was developed by HP engineer Rick Jones. Netperf is a light-weight vendor neutra throughput between two points.

The latest version of Netperf can be downloaded from the official Netperf site. Note that the download site will provide access to the Netperf source code. You will need to compile it in order to run it. Netperf can be successfully compiled to ru compiling kind of mood, you can download a compiled copy of the netperf tools from my Web site. Run netserver.exe on one system and netclient.exe on the other system to arrive at a throughput value between the two systems. By default, when you run Netserver, it uses port 12865. With the p switch, you can specify a different port for the command to use. Once executed, N connects to it. While there are numerous options that accompany the Netclient command, for performing throughput tests, you only need to be concerned with H an remote sites through a firewall. If youre interested in the numerous other switches available with Netperf, go here. Once you have the netserver.exe file on one system and the netclient.exe file on the second system, you would perform these steps to test throughput:

1. On the first system, access the command prompt and run netserver.exe (you must run the command from the folder where it resides). 2. From the second system, run netclient.exe H from the command prompt. Wait a few seconds and you will see the throughput information displayed on the system that ran Netclient. You will also see the netserver command e system. Here is a sample of the command and resultant output from running Netclient:
G:\Netperf>netclient -H fs1.mcpmag.com TCP STREAM TEST to fs1.mcpmag.com Recv Send Send Socket Socket Message Elapsed Size Size Size Time Throughput bytes bytes bytes secs. 10^6bits/sec

8192

64512

64512

10.00

97.30

In my example, I first went to the server named fs1.mcpmag.com and ran the command netserver.exe. I then went to another system and ran "net resultant throughput between the two systems was 97.3 Mbps. This demonstrated that the 100Mbps LAN connecting the two systems was running fine network bottleneck. At that point, you would need to go through the usual suspects (NIC drivers, duplex mode, speed, switch settings, etc.) to determin If you are having to install network software on another organizations network, Netperf can quickly give you a throughput measurement that will allo as being problem. I like Netperf because I can run in on nearly any OS. Im sure that many of you have a favorite network per formance testing tool. If about the tool as a comment to this column.