Help with file sporadic file transfer errors (0x8007003B)

[JRusty15]

Hello fellow freenas'ers! I'm having some random issues transferring files to my FreeNAS server from my laptop. The error message states

"An unexpected error is keeping you from moving the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

Error 0x80070003B: An unexpected network error occurred."

Background Information: I've set up my freenas server a few years ago basically as a media server (with some storage for other things on the side). I run Plex and have a bunch of videos, music, and pictures on there that I can stream. I have a large DVD collection that I've been meaning to move to my media server so I can free up some space in my apartment and have easy access to watch these movies. I've been using my laptop (Win 10) to create the digital media files and then moving them from my laptop to the server. I've been doing this for a week or so now (there are over 500 DVDs I'm moving), and recently I started to see this error now and again. I would wait and then try again later and it would be fine. But today I simply can't get anything to transfer. If I'm lucky, I'll see it start to copy at around 5 Mbps, then drop to 0, then finally display this error. Typically the files were transferring at around 10 Mbps. I'm not super familiar with freenas and don't know where to look for any errors on the server side.

Also, I should mention that the volume I'm moving files to is only at 51% capacity. There is plenty of room.

My router is a Nighthawk X4 R7500 running stock firmware (just updated yesterday).

Server Hardware:
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU E3200 @ 2.40GHz
2GB Ram
Two 4TB hard drives - Raid 0 (for media files)
Two 2TB hard drives - Raid 0 (for storage, pictures, music)
I believe the NIC is only 10/100

Any help is appreciated. I'm a software developer by trade, but mostly familiar with Windows systems, but I have some knowledge of linux systems.

THANK YOU!

 

[Ericloewe]

"An unexpected error is keeping you from moving the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

Error 0x80070003B: An unexpected network error occurred."

Is that on Windows?

2GB Ram

Well, there's your problem. The minimum requirement is 8GB of RAM.

I run Plex and have a bunch of videos, music, and pictures on there that I can stream.

With 2GB of RAM? It's a miracle the server doesn't outright crash. Even 8GB of RAM is definitely not recommended when running Plex.

 

[JRusty15]

Is that on Windows?

Yes, this message is received on my Windows 10 laptops

Well, there's your problem. The minimum requirement is 8GB of RAM.

With 2GB of RAM? It's a miracle the server doesn't outright crash. Even 8GB of RAM is definitely not recommended when running Plex.

I've been running this configuration for years with no issues. Plex streams pretty well, even over the internet. How does RAM factor in to file transfers? And why was it never an issue before?

 

[Ericloewe]

How does RAM factor in to file transfers?

In literally every way.

And why was it never an issue before?

A whole lotta luck.

 

[JRusty15]

In literally every way.


A whole lotta luck.

I don't mean to sound ignorant here, but can you explain how the RAM affects the hard drive performance?

 

[Ericloewe]

Everything goes through RAM. Data isn't going anywhere without going through RAM. Not enough RAM for a buffer that is needed for a file transfer, no file transfer. Smaller buffers, worse performance. And so on...

 

[JRusty15]

I did some tests, and I am able to transfer smaller files without issue. But movie files (around 800MB) don't finish copying over. Sigh....this rig was built using leftover parts from old family computers and worked flawlessly until now. I just bought the pair of 4 TB hard drives too and was excited for the extra space. The motherboard is too old to find more memory at a reasonable cost. I might as well put together a new motherboard / CPU / RAM combo.

....unless there's anything else I can do?

 

[Inabon]

you need 8 gigs of ram at least.

 

[JRusty15]

Just a quick update. I ordered a new CPU / Mobo / RAM setup from Newegg with 8GB of ram. Unfortunately the motherboard won't arrive until after the new year. In the meantime I'm storing the files on my laptop's hard drive. Just for fun, I tried to copy some to the server today and everything copied over just fine at ~10 MB/s. I still don't believe that the lack of RAM is the cause of this issue, but I suppose it at least motivated me to upgrade my server hardware.

 

[cobrakiller58]

I assume you referenced Hardware Recommendations Guide before you placed you order?

 

[JRusty15]

Unfortunately I did not. I was unaware of this document.

 

[Inabon]

Just a quick update. I ordered a new CPU / Mobo / RAM setup from Newegg with 8GB of ram. Unfortunately the motherboard won't arrive until after the new year. In the meantime I'm storing the files on my laptop's hard drive. Just for fun, I tried to copy some to the server today and everything copied over just fine at ~10 MB/s. I still don't believe that the lack of RAM is the cause of this issue, but I suppose it at least motivated me to upgrade my server hardware.

here is the thing if you do 1 big transfer and goes through next ones will start failing without ram. Basically follow the guidelines for amount of hard drive space to available ram :) you wont have issues again.

 

[JRusty15]

Here's a quick update. The new parts came in and I put everything together. Server booted up great and even upgraded to FreeNas 11.1 (from 9.3). Over the last couple days, file transfers have been moving at 50-60MB/s instead of the max 10MB/s I was seeing with the old setup. So far so good!

New setup:
CPU: AMD A10-9700 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113451)
Mobo: ASRock A320M (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157764)
RAM: 8GB DDR4 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313510)