Gigabit the dust. Why is my max transfer speeds 30Mbps?... Cisco 3850 with isr4331 Router

[stdout]

I have an ISR4331 router and 3850 and when I try to transfer files, the throughput is horrible. definitely not the gigabit speeds all of the hardware supports. I'm not sure where I need to start looking to try to figure out why and how my configs are limiting the throughput on these interfaces.

I know there will be a lot of questions as to my configs and since this is my first time posting, I'll wait to see what information is needed, if any.

Thanks!

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Depending on the 4331's performance licenses, performance can be capped as low as 100 Mbps (aggregate) so first understand, not obtaining gig speeds, through it, may not be unexpected.  That noted, 30 Mbps is on the low side.

Before, or concurrently with configs, please describe your end-to-end topology, and what you're doing where you only obtain 30 Mbps.

[stdout]

Network is 192.168.1.0

Everything is using gig fiber SFPs.
Every device is connected to the same switch, with switchport mode access, and set to the associated vlan

The two devices that are trying to communicate are on separate VLANs

Everything is routed through one port to router which has subnetting for everything within the same network.

In windows, I'm trying to transfer a file from one machine to another.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

You're not routing on the 3850?

If all local hosts are connected to it, and you want to route between local VLANs, that's really, really (really) where you want your LAN routing.

What might be happening, your 3850 might be sending bursts of data, to your router, faster than the router's performance cap allows.  A high drop rate on the router, can, very much, slow your transmission rate.  If this is happening, the ISR might have a command to show it's performance cap being overloaded.

[stdout]

Not routing on 3850. I should have made my username n00b. I’m having to implement someone else’s design but don’t have access to them for assistance. But even if my router is the bottleneck it shouldn’t be as low as 30 for what that ISR costs. 

Let me ask this... everything is fresh out of the box and I’m skipping the auto configure dialogs. I have envelopes of entitlements. Do I HAVE to install those? Or do they send those as “here’s your proof you paid for what’s on the router?”

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

Again, basic performance license for your 4331 only supports 100 Mbps, aggregate.  If you have "better" performance licenses, and have not applied them, or activated additional performance, even on a trial basis license, that's the cap you're working under.  Again, if the 3850 is transmitting data to the ISR in high capacity bursts, that cap might explain why you're not even seeing 100 Mbps.  Because, also again, if the caps drops a bunch of packets, transfer rates can drop (a lot).

(If this is what's happening, w/o changing the licensing on your ISR, running the connection between the ISR and 3850 at 100 Mbps might see the transfer rate increase.  Although, then you're more likely to see egress queues drops on the 3850, which w/o some tuning [like what's been suggested by Leo], can also cause performance issues.)

On the other hand, your 3850 doesn't have a performance license, and basically, more or less, it can do wire speed on all the ports concurrently.

An ISR is really designed for WAN routing, where you need "features" more than "speed".  The 3850 is the converse, i.e. "speed" over "features".

As to your question, do you have install the licenses (beyond "proof")?  That depends on the platform and feature.  Generally all "additional" features require activation.  However, on some platforms, I believe, some features can be activated, beyond a trial basis, w/o applying an actual upgrade license.

[stdout]

I just wanted to say thank you to those who replied and tried to help come up with a solution. The short version is, I'm getting what I paid for. We have a license for 300Mpbs:

GatewayTest#show platform hardware throughput level
The current throughput level is 300000 kb/s

300000/1024/8 =  ~30MB/s which is the speed that I'm seeing.

What doesn't make sense is that when I tried to download and apply my licenses, it said they were already installed. I was seeing these speeds out of the gate which would imply that I didn't actually need to install/apply any licenses.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Again, you should try doing your intra-LAN routing on your L3 switch, as that's where you really want it for LAN speeds.

In the interim, you might also see if you can bump up your router's licensed speed on a trial basis.  This would further confirm its current licensed speed is the bottleneck.

If you compare the license's cost for a bandwidth bump on your router, to the cost (zero) of moving LAN routing to the L3 switch, believe you have a great case for a change in your network's routing design.  Again, even licensing the full performance of your router, is much shy of the performance of your L3 switch.

[Leo Laohoo]

On the router, please post the complete output to the complete output to the following command: 

sh license feature

Please post the complete output to the following 3850 commands: 

sh version
sh interface <ROUTER PORT> controll
sh run | include qos queue-softmax-multiplier 1200

[stdout]

Unfortunately, I cannot copy any output. This is on an "isolated network." I CAN say that I got some licenses but have not added them to the router... They are literally out of the box and I have dumped my configs on there (I've never set one up fresh out of the box before).

FL-4330-PERF-K9

ISRWAAS-RTU-750

VWAAS-RTU-1300

As for the switch there's no config for:

sh run | include qos queue-softmax-multiplier 1200

[stdout]

Feature name	Enf	Eval	Sub	En	RightToUse
appxk9	        yes   	yes	no	yes	yes
uck9	        yes	yes	no	no	yes
securityk9	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
ipbasek9	no	no	no	yes	no
FoundationSuiteK9yes	yes	no	no	yes
AdvUCSuiteK9	yes	yes	no	no	yes
cme-srst	yes	yes	no	no	yes
hseck9	        yes	no	no	no	no
throughput	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
internal_serviceyes	no	no	no	no

[Leo Laohoo]

qos queue-softmax-multiplier 1200

When dealing with 3650/3850, this command MUST be present. 

The QoS queue for these two models are, for a lack of a better adjective, "bonkers".  

And what firmware are the 3850 running on?

[stdout]

9.16.03.09

[Leo Laohoo]

sh interface <ROUTER PORT> controll

I still want to see the output to this command.

If this network is "highly classified", government or intelligence/military, then this query should have gone straight to TAC in the first place.

[stdout]

lol. I've been struggling with them, too, but no... I ran the command earlier but couldn't get the output off of the system. Is there something specific I'm looking for? I'll run the command once I can access the system again.