Transfer Rate - Perplexed

[tduplantis]

I recently setup MRTG for all of my routers and 2 of my servers. The information I am receiving on my routers seems accurate, but the information coming from my servers is somewhat confusing.

I setup MRTG to monitor the server's port on a Cisco 2924XL switch. After doing so, i noticed the most traffic was about 550 KBits. That is about 1% of 100 MBits. I figured the server was just not doing much so I started a file transfer between servers and and let it go for about 10 minutes. I figured it copied about 300MBytes every 5 minutes. 300MBytes = 2400MBits/5 = 480MBits per minute. 480Mbits per minute is ONLY 8MBits per second. How could I only be getting 8MBits per second transfer rate on a server with a 100MBit Ethernet card attached to a 100MBit Cisco Catalyst 2924XL Switch?

 

[ChrisAC]

Could be lots of things!! Have you checked the port config on the switch? What about the NIC config on the server? Do you have lights on the switch and the NIC that indicate 10 or 100meg links! What's the cabling like? Bad cabling and bad terminations can easily affect data transmission over the LAN!!

Chris.

 

[Cerati]

Could indeed be lots of things ;-)

Easiest ones to check are that the duplex that is set on the NIC drivers and the duplex set on the switch agree and that both NIC and switch are running 100. I don't trust autonegotiation as far as I can throw it.

What sort of transfer rate would you expect from the config of your servers ?

 

[tduplantis]

All of my switch settings are set properly:

!
interface FastEthernet0/7
description NT_BACKUP
duplex full
speed 100
port group 1
!
interface FastEthernet0/8
description NT_BACKUP
duplex full
speed 100
port group 1

There is no 10MBit Ethernet card in my server. No errors on the switch. It's and NT 4.0 server, which is most likely the problem.

 

[jimbopalmer]

If the Duplex is hard coded at the switch, not autonegotiate, you would have to hard code it at the NIC as well, or it will tend to go to half duplex. The one thing you can't give for your heart's desire is your heart. - Lois McMaster Bujold