Tuning adapter resources
Due to the wide range of adapters and drivers, it is difficult to discuss all types of adapter attributes. The following information focuses on the common attributes that most network adapters and drivers have that can affect system performance.
Most communication drivers provide a set of tunable parameters to control transmit and receive resources. These parameters typically control the transmit queue and receive queue limits, but may also control the number and size of buffers or other resources. These parameters limit the number of buffers or packets that may be queued for transmit or limit the number of receive buffers that are available for receiving packets. These parameters can be tuned to ensure enough queueing at the adapter level to handle the peak loads generated by the system or the network.
Following are some general guidelines:
- To display detailed information about the adapter resources and any errors
that might occur, use the following commands, depending on which adapters
you use:
- netstat -v
- entstat
- atmstat
- fddistat
- tokstat
- Monitor system error log reports using the errpt and errpt -a commands.
- Remember to only change parameters if any of the following conditions
apply:
- There is evidence indicating a resource shortage.
- There are queue overruns.
- Performance analysis indicates that some system tuning is required.