Slow SFTP Transfer Speed

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Messages
4
Hi All,

I'm new to FreeNAS and have set up my first server with the following specs:
- Intel i5-3570k
- 4 x 4GB 1600MHz (non-EEC)
- 2 x 120GB SSD (boot + cache)
- 3 x 4TB WD Red NAS Drives
- 1 x 8TB SG Archive Drive
- 4 x 500GB 7200RPN Drives
- LSI RAID Controller/HBA

I've created a self signed certificate and have enabled SFTP. Unfortunately, I've only been able to achieve speeds as high as 25MB/s and as low as 5MB/s. Given my hardware and the fact that I'm on a gigabit network, I should be getting much higher transfer speeds. What type of modifications can I make to better my speeds?

Thanks,
Pat
 

tvsjr

Guru
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
959
First, you haven't provided nearly all of the information required to form an intelligent opinion. Read this: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/forum-rules.22553/
Second, you're using non-ECC memory, so your hardware doesn't meet the recommended specs. The ECC bit shouldn't affect this particular issue, but it makes one wonder what other shortcuts you took on hardware.

Which array are you writing to? How's the array configured (RAIDZx? something else?) How are your speeds locally on the system? What does your network look like between the FreeNAS box and the client? Is wireless involved anywhere?
 
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Messages
4
First, you haven't provided nearly all of the information required to form an intelligent opinion. Read this: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/forum-rules.22553/
Second, you're using non-ECC memory, so your hardware doesn't meet the recommended specs. The ECC bit shouldn't affect this particular issue, but it makes one wonder what other shortcuts you took on hardware.

Which array are you writing to? How's the array configured (RAIDZx? something else?) How are your speeds locally on the system? What does your network look like between the FreeNAS box and the client? Is wireless involved anywhere?

My apologies for not including more information. The system has three arrays: NAS, Storage, and Archive. The NAS volume uses four 500G drives in raidz to allow for 1T of storage. The Storage volume uses three 4T drives in raidz to allow for 8T of storage, additionally a 120G SSD is used for caching. Finally, the Archive volume is just a stripe of an 8T Seagate Archive drive - and is used to backup the Storage volume periodically. All drives are using SATA 3 6G.

When backing up data from the Storage volume to the Archive volume (which is a shingled drive, so it may be a bottleneck) write speeds of 150M/s are achieved on the 8T drive, the three 4T drives each achieve reads of 65M/s.

The both the client and server machines are wired into the gigabit network - no wireless anywhere. I'm at university and can't make any network modifications. Network speed should not be an issue, I was able to achieve download speeds of 65M/s on a client over HTTPS.

FreeNAS Build: FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201601181840

Imgur Album of NAS: http://imgur.com/a/9YRVQ
dmesg: http://pastebin.com/hpW3tJzh
iconfig: http://pastebin.com/PBWYXhjk
pciconf: http://pastebin.com/VUNMvytN
 
Last edited:

pirateghost

Unintelligible Geek
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
4,219
A. You don't need a cache disk. That's probably affecting you.

B. Test your network speed to the server with iperf. I'm guessing that desktop motherboard you selected uses realtek NICs
 
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Messages
4
A. You don't need a cache disk. That's probably affecting you.

B. Test your network speed to the server with iperf. I'm guessing that desktop motherboard you selected uses realtek NICs

I purchased an Intel NIC which should be coming next week. I performed the iperf test as you requested and got gigabit speeds. I don't believe the issue is with my Realtek controller, I think my slow speed has to do with SFTP's configuration. Also, I've noticed that SSH transfers are limited to roughly 2.2M/s - maybe they share the same issue?

iperf: http://pastebin.com/g2mYLVNt
 

Robert Trevellyan

Pony Wrangler
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
3,778
I think my slow speed has to do with SFTP's configuration. Also, I've noticed that SSH transfers are limited to roughly 2.2M/s - maybe they share the same issue?
SFTP stands for SSH File Transfer Protocol.

Perhaps encryption is hurting performance.
 

Mirfster

Doesn't know what he's talking about
Joined
Oct 2, 2015
Messages
3,215

RobbieL811

Cadet
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
4
Hi All,

I'm new to FreeNAS and have set up my first server with the following specs:
- Intel i5-3570k
- 4 x 4GB 1600MHz (non-EEC)
- 2 x 120GB SSD (boot + cache)
- 3 x 4TB WD Red NAS Drives
- 1 x 8TB SG Archive Drive
- 4 x 500GB 7200RPN Drives
- LSI RAID Controller/HBA

I've created a self signed certificate and have enabled SFTP. Unfortunately, I've only been able to achieve speeds as high as 25MB/s and as low as 5MB/s. Given my hardware and the fact that I'm on a gigabit network, I should be getting much higher transfer speeds. What type of modifications can I make to better my speeds?

Thanks,
Pat
What's up bud? I realize that this thread is a little bit old. I too am new to Freenas (although not new at all to NIX systems). Did you ever figure out anything about this? I have plenty of ECC RAM, and am using an Intel NIC, and I'm having very similar issues to you. My build is based on a Supermicro X8DTN+ mobo with 32 GB RAM, and dual X5690's if anyone else has any ideas. Weird thing is, only my transfers to the main box IP are slow. Around 30 megabytes per second via SFTP. If I transfer to my main IP via FTP, then my transfers are around 105 megabytes per second. Also, worth noting that transferring via SFTP to a jail seems to also max out my gigabit network @ 105 MB/sec. Kind of weird. Not really sure what would make SFTP to the main IP so slow. All of these transfers were done locally on a gigabit network. Freenas 11U-2.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top