TCP Chimney Offload

[vicman]

I'm doing research but would like some clarification. We have three servers. Two are Windows 2003 R2 Standard x64 SP2. One is Windows 2008 Standard x64 SP2 (not R2). I'm trying to optimize the system performance and fix some minor backup issues.

What is the best practice for TCP Chimney Offload for my two operating systems? I see that it should be enabled for Win08 R2 but it should be disabled in Win03. What about Win08 Std? is the performance gains worth the change?

Thanks

[Zahid_Haseeb]

I thought this setting will only need when you face problem. Here is my experience below:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/socket-write-failed24

[AAlmroth]

Chimney offloading may improve performance, but may also add to failed backups. Depending on your NIC vendor, you may or may not be lucky. Generally, Broadcom NICs cannot handle sustained I/O very well, so don't offload anything to the NIC (including TCP checksums etc). With Intel NIC you may be in a better position.

NIC firmware, OS driver versions play a big role here. It is not an exact science, so your best option, unfortunately, is to try. However, if you can give us a list of NICs that you are considering, people in this forum may be able to provide feedback no their success/failure stories...

/A

[pikachu]

In general if I have issues I turn that off and on solaris disable tcp fusion.