Does FN benefit from dual processors?

[Keith Savoie]

I have an older SuperMicro server running FN 9.10.x acting as a rsync backup for my main production FN server. This server doesn't support multi-core processors but does support dual processors. Does FN see any benefit from dual processors?
Thanks.

 

[melloa]

FreeNAS, not really. Everything else you are planning to run inside of it, yes. People runs FreeNAS with an Pentium, I do.

 

[Keith Savoie]

Dual processors wouldn't be a determent to performance would it?
In my case, all this server is doing is periodically rsync'ing a remote directory a few times a day along with creating snapshots of the local volume.

 

[wblock]

Is the system processor-bound now? If not, adding another just adds heat.

But why rsync rather than replicate?

 

[Keith Savoie]

thanks wblock; During the sync the older backup server CPU runs 100% until complete so i'm guessing yeah, bound.
Replicate? Not familiar, have a link?..or I can look it up. What are the benefits over rsync?

 

[wblock]

It's native ZFS: http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/storage.html#replication-tasks

 

[Keith Savoie]

Interesting, wasn't aware of this feature. I have a question, if replication saves/replicates the main servers snapshots, is there no file structure on the backup per se? I ask because currently I have file sharing configured for access on the backup server just in case of mains failure. Could I do the same if utilizing replication?

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Does FN see any benefit from dual processors?

Yes. But that's not the right question. If you're not CPU-bound, you probably don't need extra horsepower.

How are you running rsync? Over ssh by chance? If so, it is likely the encryption that's eating your CPU and not FreeNAS itself. But, yeah, native snapshots and replication are probably what you want.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Could I do the same if utilizing replication?

Yes. That's how we have ours configured.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Keith Savoie]

How are you running rsync? Over ssh by chance?

Running as FN rsync module. No encryption and compression turned off.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Running as FN rsync module. No encryption and compression turned off.

What's eating up your CPU? Just rsync? You should post your machine specs. We're running on some pretty old hardware and never see that kind of utilization when replicating.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Keith Savoie]

Here is what my backup server CPU is looking like right now. https://ibb.co/iJysfa
It's in the middle of rsyncing (not replicating) 1TB of data (full copy). Network and drive activity are very busy and look to be performing relatively OK for this box.
Backup server is relatively low spec single 3ghz Xeon with 8GB RAM. Storage is a single WD Black 6TB attached to on board SATA.
Going to upgrade to dual 3.8ghz, already have them.