New to FreeNAS; Performance check

[kourosh]

Hi,

I am total noob in FreeNAS. I have been reading about it in the forum for past couple of months. I finally finished my build last month as follows;

Motherboard: Supermicro Micro X11SSM-F-O
CPU: Intel Core i3-6300
RAM: Samsung ECC 16GB DDR4-2400
Power supply: SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W
Hard drives: 3 X 4 TB WD Red in raidZ1
Chasis: Fractal Design Node 804

I have created a couple of smb (for personal storages) and afp (for time machine) shares. I use Mac to to work with my FreeNAS.

My question now is regarding the performance of my FreeNAS. More specifically, read/write speed. I think I am not getting the performance that I am supposed to.

As I said, I am total noob, and I don’t have any idea how to check read/write speed systematically. Is there any specific guide to walk me through the performance check?

What I have done so far is to connect my Mac to FreeNAS using two methods; 1) connecting both of them to my router 2) connecting my Mac directly to the FreeNAS. And then I did read/write speed test using BlackMagic Speed Test. Below are my results;

Using method 1:
35-50 MB/s

Using method 2:
300 MB/s

Based on the above preliminary results, my router is clearly a problem. But is 300 MB/s good enough for my system with direct connection to FreeNAS? Is BlackMagic Speed Test is the best method to use for performance check?

Thanks
Kourosh

 

[Chris Moore]

Based on the above preliminary results, my router is clearly a problem. But is 300 MB/s good enough for my system with direct connection to FreeNAS? Is BlackMagic Speed Test is the best method to use for performance check?

I think you are misunderstanding the capability of a NAS. It isn't able to magically make your drives faster. According to the spec sheet from WD, that model drive only has a 'internal transfer rate' of 150 MB/s. There is your speed limit. It is absolute.
If you want to have faster transfer, you need more drives. We usually see this type of discussion once or twice a month, so if you can just say what results you are trying to get, I can tell you what hardware you actually need, to be able to get that result.

PS. What method are you using to direct connect between the Mac and the FreeNAS?

 

[kourosh]

I think you are misunderstanding the capability of a NAS. It isn't able to magically make your drives faster. According to the spec sheet from WD, that model drive only has a 'internal transfer rate' of 150 MB/s. There is your speed limit. It is absolute.
If you want to have faster transfer, you need more drives. We usually see this type of discussion once or twice a month, so if you can just say what results you are trying to get, I can tell you what hardware you actually need, to be able to get that result.

Thank you for your response. I am just trying to see if I am getting the speed that I am suppose to get. In another word, what is the theoretical speed that I should get with my specs? And what is the best tool that I can use to check my read/write speed?

 

[kourosh]

PS. What method are you using to direct connect between the Mac and the FreeNAS?

I connect them directly using ethernet with static IP addresses.

 

[Chris Moore]

I connect them directly using ethernet with static IP addresses.

1GB copper, 10GB fiber optic, something else?
The speed limit the 1GB networking is less than the speed you are getting with direct connection, unless there is a mistake between Mb and MB, which are very different numbers.

Based on the potential of the drives that you are using, I would say that the maximum speed you could have is a little more than 150MB/s up to just under 300MB/s; however the link speed of 1GB networks is only around 125MB/s, so that is the best you can get...
Which is why I ask what the connection between the two is.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[kourosh]

Sorry for my late response Chris.
I am using 1GB copper cable for my direct connection. More specifically, the ethernet cable is cat 5, 24 AWG x 4P, E200534.

You are right, I made a mistake in reporting the speed (sorry about that). The correct write/read speed based on the BlackMagic Speed Test is about 100 MB/s. I attached the results just in case.

So based on your comments, I guess I am getting an acceptable read/write speed with my FreeNAS, correct?
Also, is my method for checking my write/read speed correct?

 

[Chris Moore]

There's a lot of ways to test the speed. I'm not going to say that it's wrong. It's not what I would do, but it works.

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