Performance degradation requiring reboots every 2 days

[glp]

I am having an issue with my NAS that is causing really bad performance after about 2 days of up-time, causing me to have to reboot it.

First, the specs:
FreeNAS 9.2.1.9
System: HP Compaq 8100 Elite Convertible Minitower Business PC
CPU: Intel Core i5 650, 3.2ghz quad core
RAM 8GB DDR3
Disks: 2x WD Red 2TB mirrored (about 900gb/2tb used)
Net: Onboard gigabit ethernet

It is used mostly for art files for a graphics dept. Immediately after rebooting, it will populate folder contents really quickly, open and save files fast etc. Then after about 2 days of uptime, a photoshop edit that would have taken 5 seconds takes 15 minutes.

None of the graphs look terribly out of the ordinary. During this 'slow period', swap usage is zero, and there is about 200-300mb of 'free' ram and 2-3gb of 'inactive'.

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this with freenas / ZFS in general?

 

[cyberjock]

There's lots of causes. The first thing I'd do is add more RAM. 8GB really isn't that much RAM for FreeNAS.

The second thing that is suspect is the hardware. You're definitely not using server grade as there is no such thing as a server-grade system running an i5. An i5 should have the required processing power to get the job done, but hardware that isn't compatible with FreeBSD (which many desktop components aren't) create problems that slowly push you up the cliff until you are pushed off.

You also aren't using ECC RAM, so you are taking some risks...

 

[fraenki]

I am having an issue with my NAS that is causing really bad performance after about 2 days of up-time, causing me to have to reboot it.

Everytime I was hit by such problems it was due to some hardware issues. I'd check for an BIOS update and run a extensive memory test.
And as noted by cyberjock, you're running the absolute minimum amount of RAM – maybe you should consider upgrading to 16 GB.

Regards
- Frank

 

[glp]

Thanks for the replies, we are going to try adding memory. Unfortunately it is hard to convey the risks with the desktop hardware / non-ecc ram to people in charge of the money until something catastrophic happens.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Much cheaper to do it correctly the first time than to do it wrong and then have to redo it again correctly.