Fri, 09/04/2009 - 11:12 | webmaster
Ixia recently held an online webinar entitled, "Testing the Cloud: Optimizing Virtualized Data Center Performance." The webinar featured two speakers that focused on the technology as well as how Ixia can address it with several products. The webinar also featured a live Q&A session that was interesting and informative. If you missed it, you can still catch the videos at the
Ixia Webinar website.
Keep in mind that Ixia hosts live webinars once or twice a month!
Wed, 07/29/2009 - 17:32 | webmaster
Intel recently posted benchmarks of an 8-core Nehalem-based server with two dual-port NICs based on their next-gen 82599 10Gbps Ethernet chipset. Using IxChariot, Intel was able to demonstrate more than 50 Gbps of throughput bidirectionally on a single server.
Intel's notes on the test setup...
Performance result of a bandwidth intensive network benchmark (IxChariot). Network throughput was measured on 64KB I/O size transfers between the test system and multiple network targets. Intel pre-production system with two Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series CPUs (2.93 GHz), 12 GB memory (6 x2GB DDR3 - 1066MHz) vs. Intel Production system with two Intel® Xeon® processors X5365 (3.0GHz, 1333MHz FSB), 8 GB memory (8 x 1 GB DDR 2 - 667). Windows Server 2008, stock unmodified installation.
[External Link]
Need to Get the Most out of 10 Gigabit? Use Nehalem.
Thu, 07/16/2009 - 10:44 | webmaster
Samara Lynn of ChannelWeb posted an article this week on products that boost network performance and help you get the most out of your infrastructure investment. That's exactly how customers are using IxChariot every day - making sure that SLA's are met, QoS policies are handled properly by every device in the network and performance is optimized for network conditions. For more information on tuning your network with IxChariot, or to share your successes with other Chariot users, see this thread on our TestTalk Chariot forum.
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 17:24 | webmaster
Originally posted April 6, 2009
Ixia has posted a new test plan on virtualization performance to IxChariot.com. This test plan explains how to use IxChariot™ to validate and optimize a virtualized data center. IxChariot™ is unique as it can generate and analyze application traffic between many endpoints and the VMs answering questions such as:
What is the optimum VMs to processor ratio for peak network performance?
How do multiple NICs impact the performance of virtualized servers?
What is the effect of latency introduced by virtualization on application performance?
Ixia is also hosting a Webinar called 'Assessing Network Performance in Virtualized Environments' on April 23rd at 10.00 am Pacific Time. During the webinar we will discuss network-related challenges when transitioning to a virtualized data center and how IxChariot™ can help you pinpoint those problems and find solutions.
We'd like to hear what you think of the test plan. Please post a comment here.
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 17:19 | webmaster
Originally posted on April 6, 2009
Are you ready for Microsoft Windows® 7? Let IxChariot help you prepare today!
Responding to popular demand, Ixia’s engineering team has built new IxChariot™ endpoints for the public beta of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 OS. This endpoint has been fully tested on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 Beta build 7000, and the new endpoints are now available in the IxChariot™ Endpoint Library.
The Windows 7 endpoints are completely compatible with all your existing IxChariot™ endpoints, so you can transition your testing seamlessly to the new OS. This allows you to quickly run functional tests, where you can conduct network performance comparisons between existing versions of Windows and Windows 7. If there are any differences, you’ll find them right away.
Bottom line: IxChariot is ready to help you perform tests on the forthcoming Windows 7 Operating System. When Windows 7 hits the streets, you’ll be ready!
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 15:59 | webmaster
Originally published on February 2, 2009
Ixia just held a conference in San Diego with over 300 attendees from around the world. The participants were Ixia partners, systems engineers, trainers and network service professionals who use IxChariot.
During the conference we discussed the 2009 roadmap for IxChariot and the ways network engineers use IxChariot for different applications. One of the most interesting new applications was assessing the performance of datacenter virtualization. Server virtualization is one of the hottest trends in the IT industry. IT managers want to know: What impact does virtualization have on network performance?
It turns out that Steve Broadhead of Broadband-Testing Labs in the UK has been using IxChariot to answer that question. He recently ran a number of tests using two servers with 10GbE NICs running VMware and XEN virtual environments. His objective was to compare the performance of different 10GbE NICs from SolarFlare and Intel. Using IxChariot he was able to run up to 99% of line rate 10GbE throughput with up to 16 virtual machines per physical server.
Read Steve's full report here.
Let us know how you use IxChariot to test new networks.
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 03:58 | webmaster
Originally Posted on November 13, 2008
Since Ixia purchased Chariot in 2003, we have been continually surprised at the variety of ways customers find to use this product. We have worked with customers testing every kind of network and device. Examples of this innovation include low-bandwidth ship-to-shore communications nets, next generation MPLS backbones, and experimental mobile networks. A case in point is a service provider IT professional who while riding a train with his laptop, tested handoff time of their new on-board 802.11 network. It still amazes us to hear how much people love IxChariot and how excited they get at seminars and product training sessions. Read some of our customer testimonials to see for yourself.
This kind of user enthusiasm is the reason we've started a blog and given IxChariot it's own dedicated website. This new blog on www.IxChariot.com (now moved to this TestTalk site) will become a forum for new ideas utilizing IxChariot and assessing network performance on today’s networks. We will be posting articles featuring IxChariot, unique test methodologies for determining critical information about your enterprise network, and the latest updates to the product. This is going to be a very exciting year for this product and the user community. This blog marks only the beginning of our "community development" - expect to see and hear a lot more about IxChariot and Ixia this year.
The key reason for IxChariot's popularity is simple; it is the uncontested gold-standard for measuring network performance. Click here to read recent articles on IxChariot.
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