Architecting for Performance: Network - Virtualizing SQL Server with VMware - page 257

Figure 8.12 Jumbo ping packet.
If you tried to just do a ping of 9,000 bytes with the “do not fragment” option ( -f in
Windows), you would receive a message saying, “Packet needs to be fragmented but DF
Set.” Therefore, the number of bytes specified for the ping command needs to match
the payload of the jumbo frames packet, which is 8,972 bytes with the -l option. Here
is an example of a ping command from Windows to check the correct jumbo frames
configuration:
Click here to view code image
ping -f -l 8972 SQL2012A
Pinging SQL2012A (10.17.33.31) with 8972 bytes of data:
Reply from SQL2012A (10.17.33.31): bytes=8972 time<1ms TTL=63
Reply from SQL2012A (10.17.33.31): bytes=8972 time<1ms TTL=63
In addition to ping, if you are using vSphere 5.1 or above, with an Enterprise Plus
license and a vSphere distributed switch, then you can make use of the vSphere
distributed switch health check feature to verify your jumbo frames configuration. The
vSphere distributed switch health check periodically checks the configuration of the
physical and virtual network, including the configured VLANs, MTU, network teaming,
and failover settings. Figure 8.13 shows the results of a vSphere distributed switch
health check configured on a sample vSphere distributed switch from the vSphere Web
Client.
Figure 8.13 vSphere distributed switch health check status.
Figure 8.14 shows the configuration of a vSphere distributed switch health check on a