How do I run Performance Tests between a Windows box with WinOF-2 and a Linux box with MLNX_OFED_LINUX_5.1.2?

TL;DR: How do I run a performance test between a Linux and a Windows using WinOF-2, without downloading extra non-Mellanox software?

We are creating a setup with a Windows box, a Mellanox SN2700 Switch, and a Linux box, where everyone talks IPv6 and will eventually implement RoCE. We can ping between the machines using IPv6 pings (ping -6 and ping6). For this setup, transmission speed is the priority. Right now we are trying to run the performance tests between the two machines but we’ve hit a snag…

In the “Getting Started with Connectx-5 … for Windows” article, the performance tests seem to assume that both of the machines will be Windows, and calls for use of the nd_send_bw command. The nd_send_bw command is a Windows-only command, and the nttcp tool has not okayed by management (hoping not to have to get random non-Mellanox tools). The Linux version of the page does not have anything for Performance testing.

One option I’m seeing is to use ib_send_bw, but that is not on the Windows box. The Windows box has the WinOF-2 driver and the Mellanox Firmware Tools installed, but it appears that perftest is not installed with WinOF-2 like it is with WinOF, but instead we have mlx5_cmd.exe -PerfTuning.

Can I mix mlx5cmd perftuning with ib_send_bw or nd_send_bw with ib_send_bw? Can I get the perftest tool set for WinOF-2? How else could I solve this?

Hi Laura,

Unfortunately, there are no ROCE/RDMA compatible tools between Windows & Linux.

ib_write/read/send_bw from our driver is for Linux only, nd_write/read/send_bw from our driver is for Windows only.

Also, as an FYI, we do not perform any performance QA between Linux and Windows.

Sophie.