Very sluggish performance/unusable as media server...why?


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UnRAID 4.7 try NFS.

UnRAID 5.0b4 use AFP.

 

Thanks to all for the info, I will try to mount the shares as NFS when I get back to it this weekend...but maybe I should just skip over NFS, upgrade to 5.0b4, and mount them as AFP?

 

I would not advice upgrading to 5.0b4.  Go with 4.7 and use NFS for now.

 

After reading up on version 5, this would seem to be excellent advice.

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That looks right. I have the following options set under Advanced Mount Parameters: nolocks, locallocks, intr, soft, wrsize=32768, nosuid

 

tried that, same thing...Disk utility accepts these options, says that the NFS has responded, but the OSX Finder still says that I can't look/open/go to that supposedly mounted location because of permission issues.

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Think I'm going to punt for now...if my stuttering video and overall sluggishness is due to poor SMB performance, and I can't seem to mount these shares via NFS, then perhaps my problem will be solved by simply being patient......perhaps if I wait a month or three the version 5 bugs will be worked out and I'll be able to mount my shares via AFP...and maybe then the performance and streaming issues will just go away. 

 

So that's my plan...issue not 'solved' but instead 'on hold'...for now my unRAID system still serves as my main storage backup, and that's job number one anyway.

 

Thank you to prostuff1, dgaschk, ratmice, bubbaQ, and all who helped.

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the unRAID system is connected to a gigabit switch, which is connected to a WR54TG router (that acts as an extender for upstairs), and the lights show it's connected at gigabit speed

 

my macbook and everything downstairs is connected by CAT6 cables to the airport extreme base station...and it's CAT6 that connects the downstairs airport extreme to the WR54TG upstairs

 

yes, everything is CAT6, cables and jacks

 

Not that this has necessarily anything to do with your issue, but the above statement leads me to believe that everything is connecting through the WRT54TG, which I'm fairly sure only supports 10/100. All the cat6 cabling in the world won't help if the data is going from unraid to a gigabit switch to a megabit router to the rest of your network (And the airport extreme, is it gigabit as well?).

 

Have you tried Internet -> Router -> Gigabit Switch -> Everything else?

 

 

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All this fancy guesswork  :-\.  Can't the OP just copy one of the files from the unRaid through the network onto whatever computer he is trying to play it on to see what exact transfer speeds he is getting?  Honestly, I have had 3 Linksys routers go bad simply from overheating.  Get a dedicated network switch to run your network, instead of a router.

 

As for anyone who is looking to get cheap network cables, check out Monoprice. 100ft Cat6 cable for a little over $11.  I have 500 ft of the stuff.  My unRaid server is connected to the switch with 100ft of Cat6 and my Dune D1 media player is connected with another 100ft for a total of 200ft from server to player.  I have no problems playing back BluRay ISOs even though the Dune doesn't even fully support Gigabit speeds.

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the unRAID system is connected to a gigabit switch, which is connected to a WR54TG router (that acts as an extender for upstairs), and the lights show it's connected at gigabit speed

 

my macbook and everything downstairs is connected by CAT6 cables to the airport extreme base station...and it's CAT6 that connects the downstairs airport extreme to the WR54TG upstairs

 

yes, everything is CAT6, cables and jacks

 

Not that this has necessarily anything to do with your issue, but the above statement leads me to believe that everything is connecting through the WRT54TG, which I'm fairly sure only supports 10/100. All the cat6 cabling in the world won't help if the data is going from unraid to a gigabit switch to a megabit router to the rest of your network (And the airport extreme, is it gigabit as well?).

 

Have you tried Internet -> Router -> Gigabit Switch -> Everything else?

 

 

 

I mistyped earlier...I have the CAT6 cabling coming out of my Airport Extreme downstairs feeding into a Trendnet switch upstairs...the switch then feeds out to the unRAID system as well as the WR54TG router acting as a wireless extender for upstairs.

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All this fancy guesswork  :-\.  Can't the OP just copy one of the files from the unRaid through the network onto whatever computer he is trying to play it on to see what exact transfer speeds he is getting?  Honestly, I have had 3 Linksys routers go bad simply from overheating.  Get a dedicated network switch to run your network, instead of a router.

 

As for anyone who is looking to get cheap network cables, check out Monoprice. 100ft Cat6 cable for a little over $11.  I have 500 ft of the stuff.  My unRaid server is connected to the switch with 100ft of Cat6 and my Dune D1 media player is connected with another 100ft for a total of 200ft from server to player.  I have no problems playing back BluRay ISOs even though the Dune doesn't even fully support Gigabit speeds.

 

The ethtool eth0 command shows Speed: 1000Mb/s

Real world copying back and forth, wired, shows on average between 10 and 20Mb/s once it gets going.  Pretty sure that should be good enough, but still stutters during playback.

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All this fancy guesswork  :-\.  Can't the OP just copy one of the files from the unRaid through the network onto whatever computer he is trying to play it on to see what exact transfer speeds he is getting?  Honestly, I have had 3 Linksys routers go bad simply from overheating.  Get a dedicated network switch to run your network, instead of a router.

 

As for anyone who is looking to get cheap network cables, check out Monoprice. 100ft Cat6 cable for a little over $11.  I have 500 ft of the stuff.  My unRaid server is connected to the switch with 100ft of Cat6 and my Dune D1 media player is connected with another 100ft for a total of 200ft from server to player.  I have no problems playing back BluRay ISOs even though the Dune doesn't even fully support Gigabit speeds.

 

The ethtool eth0 command shows Speed: 1000Mb/s

Real world copying back and forth, wired, shows on average between 10 and 20Mb/s once it gets going.  Pretty sure that should be good enough, but still stutters during playback.

 

Ok then try this:  Copy one of the files you want to play directly onto the machine you want to play it on.  Play that file and compare it to playing it over the network.  Try to isolate if it's even a network issue.  It really sounds like it's not, from what you're describing.  I know you stated that playing from the Airdisk is fine, but are the files you're playing different?  Maybe it's a file corruption issue?

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All this fancy guesswork  :-\.  Can't the OP just copy one of the files from the unRaid through the network onto whatever computer he is trying to play it on to see what exact transfer speeds he is getting?  Honestly, I have had 3 Linksys routers go bad simply from overheating.  Get a dedicated network switch to run your network, instead of a router.

 

As for anyone who is looking to get cheap network cables, check out Monoprice. 100ft Cat6 cable for a little over $11.  I have 500 ft of the stuff.  My unRaid server is connected to the switch with 100ft of Cat6 and my Dune D1 media player is connected with another 100ft for a total of 200ft from server to player.  I have no problems playing back BluRay ISOs even though the Dune doesn't even fully support Gigabit speeds.

 

The ethtool eth0 command shows Speed: 1000Mb/s

Real world copying back and forth, wired, shows on average between 10 and 20Mb/s once it gets going.  Pretty sure that should be good enough, but still stutters during playback.

 

Ok then try this:  Copy one of the files you want to play directly onto the machine you want to play it on.  Play that file and compare it to playing it over the network.  Try to isolate if it's even a network issue.  It really sounds like it's not, from what you're describing.  I know you stated that playing from the Airdisk is fine, but are the files you're playing different?  Maybe it's a file corruption issue?

 

I tried that....tried many different DVD rips, then copied several of those specific rips over to the AirDisk, and they play just fine from there.

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Apologies as I only skimmed this thread so I might have the OPs confit wrong. Have you tried to hookup the nas directly to your playback device to confirm whether the router is the issue?

 

We have two Mac minis running Plex and until recently it was all over SMB which worked fine. Both will happily playback bluray iso at the same time. Now using NFS on the beta 5.

 

Our house is all cat 5e however I did discover that one of the cables was only using two pair instead of 4 so I was only getting 10/100 instead of gigabit. Only discovered this by chance because our apple router only displays a single link light for a connection. Added a switch which when connected only showed just a single light instead of two lights for gigabit. No wonder copy files took so long even with jumbo frames!

 

I also noticed that my cat6 cables would only get a 10/100 connection, switched to cat5e and all good.

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I also noticed that my cat6 cables would only get a 10/100 connection, switched to cat5e and all good.

 

That's odd. Cat6 is rated higher than 5e, when it comes to gigabit speeds. Going from memory, I believe Cat5e is only rated for gigabit up to 30m lengths, while Cat6 is rated up to 100m lengths...

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I also noticed that my cat6 cables would only get a 10/100 connection, switched to cat5e and all good.

 

That's odd. Cat6 is rated higher than 5e, when it comes to gigabit speeds. Going from memory, I believe Cat5e is only rated for gigabit up to 30m lengths, while Cat6 is rated up to 100m lengths...

I tried that cat6 in just one place inside the house, from a keystone in the wall (cat5e run from out side the house) to a switch, the switch then connected to a different keystone which is the run that goes in to our garage where the router etc lives.

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I also noticed that my cat6 cables would only get a 10/100 connection, switched to cat5e and all good.

 

That's odd. Cat6 is rated higher than 5e, when it comes to gigabit speeds. Going from memory, I believe Cat5e is only rated for gigabit up to 30m lengths, while Cat6 is rated up to 100m lengths...

I tried that cat6 in just one place inside the house, from a keystone in the wall (cat5e run from out side the house) to a switch, the switch then connected to a different keystone which is the run that goes in to our garage where the router etc lives.

The person who wired the cat6 might have wired it wrong, or it might have a bad connection in one of the jacks.  The exact pairing is critical.  There are multiple standards, some for telephone use, two for LAN use.
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I tried that cat6 in just one place inside the house, from a keystone in the wall (cat5e run from out side the house) to a switch, the switch then connected to a different keystone which is the run that goes in to our garage where the router etc lives.

 

My house was prewired with Cat 6 when I moved it.  I wound up having to replace 75% of the keystones because they were improperly crimped (missed connector, backwards pairing, etc).  Don't trust it if you haven't tested it.

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Do yourself a favor and buy yourself a cheap tester. I bought one that plugs into both ends and then it sends a signal You can watch 6lights lite up in order. If they don't lite up in order then you know a pair is either twisted or not connected at all.

 

Here is my cheap tester I bought from Home Depot a long time ago.

LINK

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+1 +1!

 

Just wired my own place a month or two ago, and no matter how careful and OCD I was, I ended up mis-wiring 3 cables in the patch panel! Grrr!

 

In my defense the little directions-sticker on the back of the panel was mis-labeled, but I should have known better :).

 

A cheap tester caught the error and I at least avoided it on the remaining wires :)

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+1 +1!

 

Just wired my own place a month or two ago, and no matter how careful and OCD I was, I ended up mis-wiring 3 cables in the patch panel! Grrr!

 

In my defense the little directions-sticker on the back of the panel was mis-labeled, but I should have known better :).

 

A cheap tester caught the error and I at least avoided it on the remaining wires :)

My crimping tool has the color coding on a label on the inside of the lid of the carrying case.  Unfortunately, it is for the telephone standard, and it is completely the wrong wiring/pairing for LAN use.

 

A un-informed user will get all the connections wrong.  Yes, they'll have connectivity, and the little light testers you mentioned will show all is ok, but the pairs of wires that should be twisted together are not, and performance will be abysmal or marginal...  I have one of those little light testers you mentioned... it does nothing to tell you you've got the pairs of the wires correctly connected, it just shows you have connections.  It is a start, but it is NOT a fool-proof method to know the connector is wired correctly.  It will just show shorts and opens.

 

Joe L.

 

 

Joe L.

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True, but when your wiring up several connections its better to do an idiot check than to look like an idiot later. Been there done that several times. Had a Cat5E cable crushed in a door because somebody was being lazy and didn't check or move it and didn't tell me until I noticed speeds appeared to be horrid and then none and back and forth. Ran a test and sure enough 1 pair didn't have conductivity and then somebody admitted to what happened. I wasn't mad just totally baffled to why something worked great and then all of the sudden. POOF

 

I'm not sure about most, but I can't afford a Fluke network tester and I don't have the patience to connect up a device to every cable I make to make sure I can achive GB speeds.

 

I was only pointing out to pickup a tester because its obvious something is going on and I'm pretty sure the blame isn't unRAID.

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My crimping tool has the color coding on a label on the inside of the lid of the carrying case.  Unfortunately, it is for the telephone standard, and it is completely the wrong wiring/pairing for LAN use.

 

A un-informed user will get all the connections wrong.  Yes, they'll have connectivity, and the little light testers you mentioned will show all is ok, but the pairs of wires that should be twisted together are not, and performance will be abysmal or marginal...   I have one of those little light testers you mentioned... it does nothing to tell you you've got the pairs of the wires correctly connected, it just shows you have connections.   It is a start, but it is NOT a fool-proof method to know the connector is wired correctly.  It will just show shorts and opens.

 

Joe L.

 

Hmmm... Food for thought...

 

I'm 99.9% sure I wired the correct pairs together, but now you make me want to double check, just to be sure. Sigh :).

 

In defence of the cheap-o testers, if you carefully follow the correct pairings on one end, it will at least confirm the fact that you matched it correctly on the other end, 2 floors up...

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