June 15, 201214 yr I've been reading through the forums for over a month and finally built my server using version 5rc4 (basic). I'm copying RAW photographs to my unraid server and windows reports 10.5 MB/s. A typical file is 16 MB. Network throuput is about 30% on a Gigabit network. My question: is this a reasonable throughput for unraid considering the data type (lots of small files)? How can I optimize performance? History: I used to backup my data to bare drives and put them on a shelf. These are the drives I will be using for unraid but I must transfer the data to unraid before I can reuse the drive in the array. Configuration: Data source is a bare drive (1.5 TB 7200 RPM) attached to my desktop via USB2 Drive dock (eSATA is a possibility). unRAID drive configuration is as follows: Parity drive is a Seagate 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA II using the onboard SATA III controller. The data drives are Hitachi 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA II attached to my AOC-SASLP-MV8 controller (SATA II). I didn't place these drives on my onboard controller because I am saving these ports for new faster drives or larger data drives as I shuffle drives and data to unRAID. After I purchase my PRO license, the final phase 1 drive configuration will be 6 Hitachi 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA II Drives and 2 Seagate 1.5 TB 7200 RPM SATA II drives attached to my AOC-SASLP-MV8 SATA II Controller, 4 Seagate 1.5 TB 7200 RPM SATA II Drives and 1 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD SATA III drive attached to my onboard SATA III controller. Upgrade Path: Replace the onboard Gigabit NIC with an Intel Pro 1000. Replace the parity drive with the fastest 3 or 4 TB SATA III drive. Upgrade data drives with larger Green drives.
June 15, 201214 yr I would suspect the USB drive interface, and smallish file size to be the limiter. Expect Max 20-35 MB/s with unRAID w/o cache across the network. I'd go with eSata if I was you.
June 15, 201214 yr USB 2 operates at 60 MB/s. The 10.5 MB/s speed could mean that a section of the network is operating at 100Mb/s (12.5MB/s). Enter "ethtool eth0" on the server to check its speed. Then check the speed on the client. Are they both connected to the same switch?
June 15, 201214 yr Author Both the client and the server are reporting Gig/full connections. There are 3 swithches separating the client from the server . All are gigabit and reporting Gig connections.
June 15, 201214 yr Can you force Gig/Full on the unraid server? Forcing a higher speed on a network connection is seldom a good idea. The speed negotiated by the card and switch usually are the highest the cable is able to sustain without errors. If you are negotiating a lower speed, you need to determine the root cause, not force a higher speed.
June 15, 201214 yr Author I would agree if I were connecting at a slower speed but I'm not. I have run a temporary cable to the switch that my unRAID server is on and I get the same throughput. Perhaps it is just the data.
June 15, 201214 yr Enter "ifconfig" and check for errors, drops, and collisions. They should all be zero.
June 16, 201214 yr Author ifconfig returns 0 errors, 37 dropped packets, 0 overruns, & 0 frame on Rx. All 0's on Tx.
June 16, 201214 yr There should be no dropped packets. It could be an issue with the NIC, cable, or switch port.
June 16, 201214 yr There should be no dropped packets. It could be an issue with the NIC, cable, or switch port. Dropped packets could be due to any number of things: right now I have 15357120 dropped on the RX side, with 0 errors, and have no integirty issues, or speed issues (get 75MB/s to cache drive,and 30-35MB/s to protected array). That is after 106 days of up time.
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