The iperf is a tool used for testing the network performance between two systems. The iperf application provides more metrics for a networks’ performance. The iperf application is not installed by default, but it is provided by most distributions’ package manager.
For CentOS/RHEL/Fedora Systems use the yum, to install the iperf package.
# yum install iperf
iperf has the notion of a “client” and “server” for testing network throughput between two systems.
The following example sets a large send and receive buffer size to maximise throughput, and performs a test for 60 seconds which should be long enough to fully exercise a network.
Server
On the server system, iperf is told to listen for a client connection:
server # iperf3 -i 10 -s
Here,
-i – the interval to provide periodic bandwidth updates
-s – listen as a server
See man iperf3 for more information on specific command line switches.
Client
On the client system, iperf is told to connect to the listening server via hostname or IP address:
client # iperf3 -i 10 -w 1M -t 60 -c [server hostname or ip address]
Here,
-i – the interval to provide periodic bandwidth updates
-w – the socket buffer size (which affects the TCP Window). The buffer size is also set on the server by this client command
-t – the time to run the test in seconds
-c – connect to a listening server at…
See man iperf3 for more information on specific command line switches.
Test Results
Both the client and server report their results once the test is complete:
Server
server # iperf3 -i 10 -s ----------------------------------------------------------- Server listening on 5201 ----------------------------------------------------------- Accepted connection from 10.0.0.2, port 22216 [ 5] local 10.0.0.1 port 5201 connected to 10.0.0.2 port 22218 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 17.5 GBytes 15.0 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.00-20.00 sec 17.6 GBytes 15.2 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.00-30.00 sec 18.4 GBytes 15.8 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.00-40.00 sec 18.0 GBytes 15.5 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.00-50.00 sec 17.5 GBytes 15.1 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.00-60.00 sec 18.1 GBytes 15.5 Gbits/sec [ 5] 60.00-60.04 sec 82.2 MBytes 17.3 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 5] 0.00-60.04 sec 0.00 Bytes 0.00 bits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-60.04 sec 107 GBytes 15.3 Gbits/sec receiver
Client
client # iperf3 -i 10 -w 1M -t 60 -c 10.0.0.1 Connecting to host 10.0.0.1, port 5201 [ 4] local 10.0.0.2 port 22218 connected to 10.0.0.1 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr Cwnd [ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 17.6 GBytes 15.1 Gbits/sec 0 6.01 MBytes [ 4] 10.00-20.00 sec 17.6 GBytes 15.1 Gbits/sec 0 6.01 MBytes [ 4] 20.00-30.00 sec 18.4 GBytes 15.8 Gbits/sec 0 6.01 MBytes [ 4] 30.00-40.00 sec 18.0 GBytes 15.5 Gbits/sec 0 6.01 MBytes [ 4] 40.00-50.00 sec 17.5 GBytes 15.1 Gbits/sec 0 6.01 MBytes [ 4] 50.00-60.00 sec 18.1 GBytes 15.5 Gbits/sec 0 6.01 MBytes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr [ 4] 0.00-60.00 sec 107 GBytes 15.4 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 4] 0.00-60.00 sec 107 GBytes 15.4 Gbits/sec receiver
Reading the Results
Between these two systems, we could achieve a bandwidth of 15.4 gigabit per second or approximately 1835 MiB (mebibyte) per second.
Here,
Interval means the test interval, the defualt value is 10 seconds and displays as “0.0-10.0 sec”
Transfer means how much data is transfered between the two nodes in the process of testing.
Bandwidth is the performance indicator which we use iperf testing for.
Testing network performance with UDP protocol
The default iperf uses TCP protocol for testing as shown above. Add option “-u” to use UDP protocol for performance testing.
1. First step is to start the server.
# iperf -s -u ------------------------------------------------------------ Server listening on UDP port 5001 Receiving 1470 byte datagrams UDP buffer size: 124 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 1.1.1.1 port 5001 connected with 1.1.1.2 port 51598 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams [ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 1.25 MBytes 1.05 Mbits/sec 0.004 ms 0/ 893 (0%)
2. The command on client side is as shown below.
# iperf -u -c server ------------------------------------------------------------ Client connecting to 1.1.1.1, UDP port 5001 Sending 1470 byte datagrams UDP buffer size: 124 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 1.1.1.2 port 51598 connected with 1.1.1.1 port 5001 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 1.25 MBytes 1.05 Mbits/sec [ 3] Sent 893 datagrams [ 3] Server Report: [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams [ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 1.25 MBytes 1.05 Mbits/sec 0.004 ms 0/ 893 (0%)
Changing the default bandwidth in UDP mode
In the UDP mode, the client uses default bandwidth (1 Mbit/sec) to send the packets to the server, so we can see the Bandwidth of UDP testing result is 1.05 Mbits/sec. In order to obtain the best network bandwidth, we can add option “-b value” to increase the sending bandwidth:
# iperf -u -c server -b 1000M ------------------------------------------------------------ Client connecting to 1.1.1.1, UDP port 5001 Sending 1470 byte datagrams UDP buffer size: 124 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 1.1.1.2 port 58097 connected with 1.1.1.1 port 5001 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 1.10 GBytes 948 Mbits/sec [ 3] Sent 806540 datagrams [ 3] Server Report: [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams [ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 1.08 GBytes 929 Mbits/sec 0.010 ms 16203/806540 (2%)
Measuring the Maximum Transfer Size (MTU)
The -m option instructs iperf to also find the Maximum Transfer Size (MTU):
# iperf -mc 192.168.10.12 ------------------------------------------------------------ Client connecting to 192.168.10.12, TCP port 5001 TCP window size: 19.3 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 192.168.10.13 port 46558 connected with 192.168.10.12 port 5001 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 113 MBytes 94.7 Mbits/sec [ 3] MSS size 1448 bytes (MTU 1500 bytes, ethernet)