Is TrueNAS slow on SMB from Macs?

[steinrr]

I am currently evaluating Unraid for mye home server setup. It is painfully slow on SMB from Mac. Directory listing takes forever if there are many files in a folder. NFS is working better, but it is an old protocol.

See e.g. here:

SMB browsing extremely slow, have tried caching and RSS tuning...

I am running the latest unRAID 6.10.3 with Folder Caching implemented and activated, with cache_pressure of 1 set. I have a few directories/shares that have thousands of files in the top level. Formerly these shares were on a Windows Server box, and SMB browsing of the directories was a bit slow ...

forums.unraid.net

Seems that the issue in Unraid is the usage of Linux FUSE for SMB. Does TrueNAS use the same? What are the general feedback from Mac users on SMB in TrueNAS?

I am considering switching over to TrueNAS.

 

[Whattteva]

I don't use Unraid, but SMB on my Macbook Pro Late 2013 is normal. I don't notice slowness in browsing unless I'm already transferring some other big file and then trying to browse around while that transfer is ongoing.

 

[steinrr]

I don't use Unraid, but SMB on my Macbook Pro Late 2013 is normal. I don't notice slowness in browsing unless I'm already transferring some other big file and then trying to browse around while that transfer is ongoing.

Ok - thanks. What happens if you e.g. try to browse a folder with 5k files in Finder?

 

[Whattteva]

Sorry, my largest videos are 1920x1200, but honestly, I don't see why even 5k would be an issue since I'd presume it would probably only download the first few frames for the purpose of displaying preview thumbnails.

 

[steinrr]

Sorry for being unclear - I mean having 5K number for files in a folder. The slowdown is with large number of files - not large files.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

@Whattteva they probably mean 5000 files in a single directory, not a "5k" video file.

@steinrr you can use a metadata special device on SSDs to speed up directory lookups. Also 5000 files in a flat directory is never a good idea.

 

[steinrr]

@steinrr you can use a metadata special device on SSDs to speed up directory lookups. Also 5000 files in a flat directory is never a good idea.

What does "you can use a metadata special device on SSDs to speed up directory lookups" mean? Unfortunately I can in many cases not control how many files or folders there are in a single directory. NFS handles it just fine - SMB on Unraid is a pain. I am interested in knowing the state of TrueNAS here - especially to know if TrueNAS uses Linux FUSE for the SMB implementation.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

TrueNAS and ZFS offer you to put the bulk of your data on spinning disks while keeping the metadata (directories among other information) on SSDs for faster lookup.

 

[ChrisRJ]

NFS is working better, but it is an old protocol.

How is the age relevant, if it works well? Besides, SMB is actually a year older than NFS (1983 vs. 1984 according to Wikipedia).