Below expectations speeds

[shnurov]

Hi!
I spent a few weeks (or months at this point...) reading to configuring a new FreeNAS machine.

Did some tests here and there, checked for compatibility & made sure everything would be great; it isn't :(

Before we start here are the specs and my general setup:
Asrock board with Intel Avaton C2750 CPU
16GB Crucial ECC ram
4x 4TB WD Red's
Silverstone 450SFX Gold PSU
Silverstone DS380 case
HDD's set up as per guide recommendation, I think 2 mirrors in raid 0.
Screenshot here: https://www.evernote.com/l/AByI3vnefmlJur-jpHmFoWj019kBUct759k

Network:
Asus RT-AC87U router (Merlin firmware) - FreeNAS plugged in it, main QNAP (ts459), Wifi sends out signal to 3 retina MacBook's Pro's (all running AC) , negotiation link at 1053-1300gbit as everything is close by.
1GBt un-managed switch (Dlink) coming out from the Asus router & going to all wired workstations (3 wired), printers (2 units), QNAP's (2x dual bay's).

Now when I copy files to the FreeNAS I'm getting 85MB/S max read + write, which is better than the 50-65MB/s on the QNAP's. I doesn't matter whether I'm on OS X, Windows, wifi or cable.

Yesterday I tested direct connection from FreeNAS to Windows via a patch cable and got 55-65MB/s.

I have setup 2 shares to the same directory, one CIFS for windows users and one AFP for OS X users.

This is for my wedding photography studio, I have 2-3 users accessing photos and going through lots of them at the same time, so random read/writes are important.

Did some read/write tests from another thread and was getting about 260MB/s read/write speeds on those drives. Given that I am using all Intel NIC's and a Thunderbolt Gbit adapter on my rMBP I would hope to at least saturate the link at ~110MB/s (given the theoretical 133 which I will never reach).

I have purchased a managed switch to help with expanding the network and getting to use LACP.

Any clues to what I can look into?

 

[DifferentStrokes]

At first glance, I'm thinking SAMBA is single threading and the 2.4 GHZ clock speed maybe holding you back from maxing out. Try looking watching cpu load during the transfers and report back what you see.

 

[shnurov]

Ok so here are the tests:

Copying a 14GB file from X79 Windows system to NAS:
Network usage: about 600Mbit
Disk usage shows 30-40MB/s on all 4 drives. Windows shows it was transferred at 68MB/s.

Same thing from OS X on AFP (via WiFi AC @878-1300Gbit rate):
Reading that file shows a max of 86MB/s and writing it varies a bit, but Max goes to 90MB/s.
OS X on AFP (1Gbit cable to Thunderbolt adapter):
Reading the file maxes out at 117MB/s & writing from Mac to NAS makes out at 116MB/s.
Which puts the HDD usage to 55-60MB/s per drive, network at 900+Mbit

Here's a screenshot for the CPU usage:
https://www.evernote.com/l/ABwTQq285KFFgJsapEoGHjdGI3XzmdAKDMEB/image.png
15h30: test with SMB to/from windows machine, then second bump is AFP over wifi, third bump is AFP over Gigabit.

So ok SAMBA is bad - but worse than expected! My current QNAP's TS259 are doing 55MB/s write/read on it... with older dual-core Atom CPU's.

Do I have any options for Windows other than SMB?

 

[DifferentStrokes]

I just re-read your first post and seen something I missed before.

It is recommended that you only use one sharing protocol per dataset. It can do crazy things to file premissions, from what I understand. I didn't know if that would have any affect on transfer speeds, however.

Maybe one of the big brains can jump in and help out some.

Oddly enough Windows has the slow SAMBA speeds. At my house I see about what you see. I've got 3 Linux machines that have no problem with saturating the Gb NIC. The one Windows computer is 50-65 MB/s.

 

[shnurov]

Right - that's true & when I was setting up the machine I wanted to use NFS, but I couldn't get it to connect, at the moment I have access from both SMB and AFP shares.
I do require both as all my stationary computers are windows machines (an X79 outpeforms any Mac for the price) and laptops are Mac's.

I did have permission issues, and I've fixed them by mixing up a few guides together and seems to be working fine now.

On the other hand - I wanted to solve two problems with this server: multiple computer access to the same dataset without slowing down the server & future expand-ability with more bays as 4-bay and 8-bay QNAP's are wayyyy more expensive :(

 

[anodos]

If you want to, you can PM me a system debug file. Click 'system' -> 'advanced' -> 'debug'. I'll take a peek at your logs and config files to see if anything stands out.

What version of Windows?

 

[shnurov]

Using Windows 8.1 64bit with Intel NIC with latest drivers.

OS X 10.10 on all systems.