Issue 11
© Solarflare Communications 2014
227
Solarflare Server Adapter
User Guide
BIOS Settings
DELL Systems
Refer to the BIOS configuration guidelines recommended by Dell's white paper
"Configuring Low-
Latency Environments on Dell PowerEdge Servers"
available from:
http://i.dell.com/sites/content/business/solutions/whitepapers/en/Documents/configuring-dell-
poweredge-servers-for-low-latency-12132010-final.pdf
HP Systems
Refer to the BIOS configuration guidelines recommended by HP's white paper
"Configuring the HP
ProLiant Server BIOS for Low-Latency Applications"
available from:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01804533/c01804533.pdf
Although targeted at tuning for real-time operating systems, the recommendations equally apply to
Windows Server platforms.
Other system vendors may publish similar recommendations. In general any BIOS settings guidelines
that are targeted at increasing network performance whilst minimizing latency and jitter are
applicable to all operating systems.
Intel® QuickData / NetDMA
On systems that support Intel I/OAT (I/O Acceleration Technology) features such as QuickData (a.k.a
NetDMA), Solarflare recommend that these are enabled as they are rarely detrimental to
performance.
Using Intel® QuickData Technology allows data copies to be performed by the system and not the
operating system. This enables data to move more efficiently through the server and provide fast,
scalable, and reliable throughput.
To enable NetDMA the
EnableTCPA
variable must be set to 1 in the
Tcpip\Parameters
registry
key. Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
The
EnableTCPA
value must be created if it is not present and set to 1:
EnableTCPA = 1
Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
On systems that support Intel Hyper-Threading Technology users should consider benchmarking or
application performance data when deciding whether to adopt hyper-threading on a particular
system and for a particular application. Solarflare have identified that hyper-threading is generally
beneficial on systems fitted with Core i5, Core i7 and Xeon (Nehalem or later) CPUs when used in
conjunction with Windows Server 2008 or later.