Performance history for network adapters

This sub-topic of Performance history for Storage Spaces Direct describes in detail the performance history collected for network adapters. Network adapter performance history is available for every physical network adapter in every server in the cluster. Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) performance history is available for every physical network adapter with RDMA enabled.

Note

Performance history cannot be collected for network adapters in a server that is down. Collection will resume automatically when the server comes back up.

Series names and units

These series are collected for every eligible network adapter:

Series Unit
netadapter.bandwidth.inbound bits per second
netadapter.bandwidth.outbound bits per second
netadapter.bandwidth.total bits per second
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.inbound bits per second
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.outbound bits per second
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.total bits per second

Note

Network adapter performance history is recorded in bits per second, not bytes per second. One 10 GbE network adapter can send and receive approximately 1,000,000,000 bits = 125,000,000 bytes = 1.25 GB per second at its theoretical maximum.

How to interpret

Series How to interpret
netadapter.bandwidth.inbound Rate of data received by the network adapter.
netadapter.bandwidth.outbound Rate of data sent by the network adapter.
netadapter.bandwidth.total Total rate of data received or sent by the network adapter.
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.inbound Rate of data received over RDMA by the network adapter.
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.outbound Rate of data sent over RDMA by the network adapter.
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.total Total rate of data received or sent over RDMA by the network adapter.

Where they come from

The bytes.* series are collected from the Network Adapter performance counter set on the server where the network adapter is installed, one instance per network adapter.

Series Source counter
netadapter.bandwidth.inbound 8 × Bytes Received/sec
netadapter.bandwidth.outbound 8 × Bytes Sent/sec
netadapter.bandwidth.total 8 × Bytes Total/sec

The rdma.* series are collected from the RDMA Activity performance counter set on the server where the network adapter is installed, one instance per network adapter with RDMA enabled.

Series Source counter
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.inbound 8 × Inbound bytes/sec
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.outbound 8 × Outbound bytes/sec
netadapter.bandwidth.rdma.total 8 × sum of the above

Note

Counters are measured over the entire interval, not sampled. For example, if the network adapter is idle for 9 seconds but transfers 200 bits in the 10th second, its netadapter.bandwidth.total will be recorded as 20 bits per second on average during this 10-second interval. This ensures its performance history captures all activity and is robust to noise.

Usage in PowerShell

Use the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet:

Get-NetAdapter <Name> | Get-ClusterPerf

Additional References