Nas does weird stuff.

[Redlaw]

Hey guys.

I build a true nas system around a AsRock J4125B-ITX with 8gb ram.
It currently holds 4x 12tb Seagate IronWolf pro discs.
For some reason when i try to stream from it it is lagging like there is no tomorrow, takign ages to load and then playign for like 10 seconds.
Does anyone have a idea why this could be?

Redlaw

 

[danb35]

You've given us very little to work with (which version of TrueNAS would be helpful, as would how and what you're trying to stream from it), but to call your hardware "marginal" would be, well, generous. The maximum RAM for that motherboard is the bare minimum to run any version of TrueNAS, and the onboard NIC is garbage; either of these could be contributing to the problems you're seeing.

 

[Arwen]

From reading the specifications of that board, it only has 2 SATA ports. Unless you are using the PCIe card slot for more SATA ports, you are then using USB for the additional 2 IronWolf Pro disks... USB attached disks for ZFS data pools is not recommended due to lots of potential problems, including speed:

Why you should avoid USB attached drives for data pool disks

This subject has been coming up quite often in the last year or 2. Perhaps because of TrueNAS SCALE has brought forth some attention to TrueNAS in general and ZFS in specific. Please note that this is about USB attached storage for ZFS data...

www.truenas.com

Unfortunately, TrueNAS & ZFS were designed for Enterprise type Data Center servers. That said, both TrueNAS and or ZFS can work perfectly fine on lower spec hardware, but their are sacrifices. Sometimes speed, reliability, or data integrity depending on what was sacrificed, (like using RealTek NICs).

 

[Redlaw]

You've given us very little to work with (which version of TrueNAS would be helpful, as would how and what you're trying to stream from it), but to call your hardware "marginal" would be, well, generous. The maximum RAM for that motherboard is the bare minimum to run any version of TrueNAS, and the onboard NIC is garbage; either of these could be contributing to the problems you're seeing.

Hey,

I am rather new at this so i did now know what all to put in the discription.
I run TrueNAS core
Version:
TrueNAS-13.0-U6.1
I just try to stream movies and music.

@Arwen,

I have a pci board with 4 more sata ports, that connects all the pool drives. And have the boot drive connected straight to the board.

 

[ChrisRJ]

I have a pci board with 4 more sata ports, that connects all the pool drives. And have the boot drive connected straight to the board.

That is probably the culprit.

 

[Etorix]

A complete description of your hardware would be a good start. Your "PCI board with 4 more SATA ports" has a model… and, unless it is a genuine -4i SAS HBA, is the next dubious component in the line (after Realtek NIC and minimal RAM).

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

In the last year or two, we've had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use port multipliers, and use cheap SATA controllers only after extensive research. SATA controllers and SATA...

www.truenas.com

 

[Redlaw]

Thank you all for your advice, i read the article and ordered a PERC310.
If this doesnt completely solve it i will come back here and talk some more.

 

[danb35]

I just try to stream movies and music.

But how? Are you using a media server of some sort? Do you just have them in a shared directory, and your client device is reading them that way? Details matter.

 

[Arwen]

Streaming movies / videos can be problematic, if the method involves NAS side trans-coding of the video. On such a low end CPU any trans-coding would be generally slow depending on source material and destination resolution. Their is a web site somewhere that specifies the minimum CPU performance to get CPU based trans-coding of various resolutions. I don't have that web site handy.

Now I have read the specifications at;

ASRock J4125B-ITX

ASRock Super Alloy<br />Intel Quad-Core Processor J4125 (up to 2.7 GHz)<br />Supports DDR4 2133/2400 SO-DIMM<br />1 PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode)<br />Graphics Output Options: D-Sub, HDMI<br />7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC887/897 Audio Codec), ELNA Audio Caps<br />2 SATA3<br />5 USB 3.2 Gen1 (2 Front, 3...

www.asrock.com

And their is a GPU that does hardware decode of H.264 & H.265, as well as encode of same. But, that does not mean that any trans-coding on the NAS side is actually using that GPU.

Of course, if you are not using any NAS side trans-coding the above does not apply.