Bug 171389 - slow network - tcp window size always too small
Summary: slow network - tcp window size always too small
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
Classification: Red Hat
Component: kernel
Version: 3.0
Hardware: i386
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: David Miller
QA Contact: Brian Brock
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2005-10-21 12:57 UTC by Nick Nauwelaerts
Modified: 2007-11-30 22:07 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2007-10-19 18:52:25 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
tcpdump example 1 (1004 bytes, application/octet-stream)
2005-10-21 12:59 UTC, Nick Nauwelaerts
no flags Details
tcpdump example 2 (974 bytes, application/octet-stream)
2005-10-21 13:00 UTC, Nick Nauwelaerts
no flags Details

Description Nick Nauwelaerts 2005-10-21 12:57:24 UTC
From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7

Description of problem:
When setting up new tcp connections the window size of the connection is very small (between 5000 & 8000). This causes network transfers on lan gigabit connections not to reach their full speed.

Furthermore the problem is magnitudes worse on high bandwidth / high latency wan connections where tcp window size is important to offset the latency.

We tried bumping our tcp_rmem/tcp_wmem/wmem_max/rmem_max and other related parameters, as well as tcp_adv_win_scale, tcp_app_win & tcp_window_scaling but to no avail.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kernel-2.4.21-27.EL

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. use any program that communitaces over tcp (ftp, web browser, whatever)
2. tcpdump the connection which the program makes
3. see how the tcp window size never gets about 9000, or even changes after the initial connection is made

Actual Results:  slow network throughput

Expected Results:  the window size should be set to something sane, like 64K or higher.

For our wan applications we even need up to 256K window size, so the window scaling option should function as well (needed for window sizes about 64K)

Additional info:

use ethereal to extract the useful information out of tcpdump files.

If you need sample tcpdumps we can provide those as well.

problem exists in kernel-2.4.21-20.EL as well.

Comment 1 Nick Nauwelaerts 2005-10-21 12:59:29 UTC
Created attachment 120252 [details]
tcpdump example 1

This is an example tcpdump, it includes the first 10 packets of a connection.
The window size does not change over the course of the connection.

Comment 2 Nick Nauwelaerts 2005-10-21 13:00:16 UTC
Created attachment 120253 [details]
tcpdump example 2

This is another example tcpdump, it includes the first 10 packets of a
connection. The window size does not change over the course of the connection.

Comment 3 Nick Nauwelaerts 2005-11-16 10:53:34 UTC
Are there any updates on this issue?

// nick

Comment 4 David Bogen 2006-04-13 21:45:20 UTC
We're seeing the same thing in the following kernels:

  2.4.21-37.0.1.ELsmp
  2.4.21-40.ELsmp

No matter what bits are flipped, it seems almost impossible to get a wscale
value of 5 or higher.  RHELv3 always seems to advertise a wcale of 0 which
limits the windows to smaller than 256K.  This is a *real* problem for those of
us that operate systems that communicate over high-bandwidth, high-latency links
(think satellites).

David Bogen
david.bogen.edu


Comment 5 RHEL Program Management 2007-10-19 18:52:25 UTC
This bug is filed against RHEL 3, which is in maintenance phase.
During the maintenance phase, only security errata and select mission
critical bug fixes will be released for enterprise products. Since
this bug does not meet that criteria, it is now being closed.
 
For more information of the RHEL errata support policy, please visit:
http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/
 
If you feel this bug is indeed mission critical, please contact your
support representative. You may be asked to provide detailed
information on how this bug is affecting you.


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