Ultra Slooow WebGui but Fast Drives - FreeNAS 11

[Blackie]

Very new guy.

The web gui and everything else works great upon installation. It continues to work great when I install Emby and set it up with large number of photos, music, and movies. Tried to see if a move ran and it worked great. Then I tried to access the FreeNAS webgui and:

Webgui is so slow it takes 5 minutes to load. I was able to see system/general after another 5 minutes. But now after 25 minutes I still have no listing of the jails.

After trying to access the WebGui the Emby server will not come up to play a movie and I cannot see any SMB shares.

I have reinstalled multiple times (7) and every time it is the same. Everything works great for the first few hours and then ultra slow/basically dead.

I installed a high speed USB3 drive to see if it was a usb drive problem. Same problem.

I opened the case and ran a giant fan into the box to see if it was a temp problem. Highly, unlikely since before the new install the system was running and I kept it running for the next install. After the new install everything ran fast even though the computer case was already up to temp. So with the giant fan running the results were the same.

Only one similar post and a number of people chimed in having the same problems. One said something about turning the jails off/on. Do I need to turn the jails off before rebooting the system?

Love it when the system is working normally. FreeNAS is really kick butt when running as it should.

This problem is consistent and repeatable for me. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[danb35]

Hardware? FreeNAS version? Any of the other detail requested in the forum rules?

 

[Blackie]

Can't remember the memory and can't get into FreeNAS to read it.

Nice that you ask. The system runs great for some hours before doing this.

 

[Ericloewe]

My bet is on a misbehaving boot device. Install to new media and see what happens.

 

[Blackie]

I have installed on a MicroSD in a USB reader, SD in a USB reader, High Speed USB drive and finally in the SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 16GB USB 3.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive Up To 130MB/s. All were 16GB.
Since I too thought it might be a problem with the boot device.

After all of those I would say it is not.
Good it added my sig.

I am guessing some problem with the jails that Plex or Emby use. I ran for some time with just SMB shares while I copied my media files to FreeNAS. During that time it ran well and fast. Tried Emby alone and Plex alone. This last time with the ultra fast USB I tried just Emby again and had the same problem.

 

[Ericloewe]

Over SSH or the local console, try to stop the jails one at a time to see what happens.

 

[Blackie]

Hardware? FreeNAS version? Any of the other detail requested in the forum rules?

Have all you asked for is that it?
Noticed you are running Plex but with a lot more memory. Can the problem be only 8GB with Emby/Plex

Edit: Add a picture of the system. I reinstalled and it ran great with just SMB shares. Now slower with the config uploaded that has Emby.


Edit: Eric, I will try that while it is still running. Only have the Emby_1 jail.

 

[Blackie]

First, the memory sure looks topped out. But that is the max the MB will take. Maybe Emby is having a hard time adding all those files. I could try loading again and quickly remove some of the storage in the Emby jail. Or should I just wait a week and see if it ever gets back to speed?

Eric: Well, I got to click on stop the jail. It now says "Please wait......." for the last 10 minutes. I might have got to it too late.
But I will get away from it right now and see what it says in the morning and let you know.

 

[Blackie]

Got back up to check.
The jail turned off: Everything is backup to speed.
Now I have no idea what to do!

 

[Stux]

My guess is the entire GUI got paged out. Used to happen to a system of mine running minimal ram. Would take maybe 5 minutes for it to respond.

Next time it happens (and I suspect it will) look in the reporting/memory page and see if you recently had circa 350MB or so of swap in use. Obviously you'd need to wait for it to start responding again :)

If that is the problem then this script should help:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ny-used-swap-to-prevent-kernel-crashes.46206/

And will also help to prenvent future crash too.

 

[danb35]

Can the problem be only 8GB with Emby/Plex

It very easily could--8GB is the bare minimum memory to just run FreeNAS, and Plex at least (haven't used Emby to say) takes quite a bit of RAM on its own. And if your motherboard only takes 8 GB to begin with, it probably isn't a very good choice for a server board anyway.

 

[Chris Moore]

Have all you asked for is that it?
Noticed you are running Plex but with a lot more memory. Can the problem be only 8GB with Emby/Plex

Edit: Add a picture of the system. I reinstalled and it ran great with just SMB shares. Now slower with the config uploaded that has Emby.
View attachment 19909

Edit: Eric, I will try that while it is still running. Only have the Emby_1 jail.

To put it into perspective, I run my Plex service on my FreeNAS with 32GB of RAM and it will use it all, all the time.
You said it is a "new" system, it must be able to have more memory. What kind of system is it?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Jailer]

Well if it runs good until you add a jail then it's likely a memory problem. That craptastic Realtek NIC isn't helping anything either.

Solution = more memory, better hardware. Read the hardware guide in the resources section before purchasing and you won't run into these issues.

 

[Jailer]

If that is the problem then this script should help:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ny-used-swap-to-prevent-kernel-crashes.46206/

Isn't that akin to putting a band aid on the problem instead of actually addressing it?

 

[Blackie]

Tried turning on the Emby jail again and it started to immediately slow again.

I think what is happening is that one of the Emby jail folders has a very large amount of Computer graphics. When I start Emby there are just so many files that FreeNAS starts to choke because of the low amount of memory.

The long term solution is a new motherboard. I will read that link Jailer

Short term I will drop the jails with the large amount of files and then see how it goes with a much lower jail count.

Hey, this is something I build with what I had on hand for a friends mother. She decided she did not want a computer so I decided to run FreeNAS on it. It ran Linux very well for what she would have done. It worked great as an intro to FreeNAS for me.

For now I will try the bandaid until I can get a new MB.

My thanks to everyone. Thought that an i3 and 8GB would be enough. Obviously not.

 

[Stux]

Isn't that akin to putting a band aid on the problem instead of actually addressing it?

Absolutely.

I use that script on an 8GB system, and it solves the problem (namely GUI login not working) with out having to put more RAM in a system which is maxed.

And even with more ram, it's still possible to get this problem.

 

[danb35]

To put it into perspective, I run my Plex service on my FreeNAS with 32GB of RAM and it will use it all, all the time.

To put it into further perspective, at one time I was having Plex max out 32 GB, plus 60 GB or so of swap, and then crash the system. It's better now, but it's still resource-intensive.

 

[Chris Moore]

and then crash the system

I thought it was my Virtualbox installation that was crashing the system.

 

[danb35]

I thought it was my Virtualbox installation that was crashing the system.

Today I'd say that's much more likely. The situation I mentioned was a few years ago.

 

[Blackie]

I don't see my system using swap. The memory use in reports just keeps going up until it crashes. But I never see any use of the swap. Do I need to change something so it will use the 2GB swap.

BTW oh boy is it ever fun trying to look at all the hardware stuff. The subtle differences in the SuperMicro boards is tough. I am looking at the X10SRA-F Doubt I will ever do any VM.