hello guys

 

im playing with a test build of unraid beta 5 rc12a with just 2 drives.

 

everything looks fine till now but when i do real world copy tests it goes weird.

 

when i copy a big file to unraid i get like 40~50M speeds but when i copy the same file to my pc from unraid read speed is 20ish MB/s

 

i cant figure out what is wrong. the network is fine cabling and gigabit seems ok, drives are fast enough and almost empty, hardware got no bottleneck all weird...

 

btw when i use teracopy it reads and writes about same speeds 20ish but burst copy writes 40~50MB/s to unraid. all confusing : )

 

i was on my way to buy myself some 2tb drives and a licensed unraid then i saw the slow read speed : (

 

hdparm -tT results;

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/dev/sda:

Timing cached reads:  1498 MB in  2.00 seconds = 748.98 MB/sec

Timing buffered disk reads: 262 MB in  3.02 seconds =  86.87 MB/sec

root@Tower:~# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

 

/dev/sda:

Timing cached reads:  1518 MB in  2.00 seconds = 758.99 MB/sec

Timing buffered disk reads: 248 MB in  3.02 seconds =  82.24 MB/sec

root@Tower:~# hdparm -tT /dev/sdb

 

/dev/sdb:

Timing cached reads:  1554 MB in  2.00 seconds = 777.76 MB/sec

Timing buffered disk reads: 266 MB in  3.00 seconds =  88.66 MB/sec

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

can u help me out?

 

thanks in advance

syslog.txt

This can be a lot of things, but one very common cause is a cable with an unterminated wire pair.

 

Try replacing the Ethernet cable.

 

I'd also try using a different port on your router or switch ... consumer class switches often have defective ports that will cause strange speed issues.

 

on it now thanks for suggestions

different port different cable same result...

 

using short cat6 on unraid end now. and changed the pc side port too.

 

now i will try booting windows on unraid machine and check speeds.

 

edit

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this is weird in windows to windows same results hehe clearly my main pc got somethin goin on... i disabled antivirus/firewall things checked everything can be related to network cant think what can cause this. at least its not unraid related but my pc cant get any faster then 23M  now i have to make another cable to test the pc end too i guess but im too lazy for it now.

 

anything comes to ur mind other then cabling?

 

yea ok i jiggled with tcpip settings tried to optimize it for 1 gigabit speeds. its better now sees 37M at peek 27ish other times

 

is this normal? what is ur reading speeds over gigabit network? what speeds shall i expect?

i send 50ish get 27 in return not cool

 

definitely got some bad settings in my main win pc  

Definitely not normal.    You may have an issue with your NIC -- I'd try an add-in Ethernet card (preferably an Intel)

 

Your read speeds over a Gb network should definitely be faster than your write speeds ... just how much depends on the actual drives you're using;  but with modern high-density drives it's not uncommon to get over 100MB transfers ... and even with older drives I'd expect 60-80MB

the drive in the unraid with data on it is 500gb samsung f2 f3 somethin reads fast enough tho 100+ and the pc end got loads of drives i tried 2tb wd black and and an ssd to test for unraid transfers so i shall see good speeds not 23M cause of disk hehe

 

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anyway i booted my main pc with another disk loaded windows xp. not fresh installed and old image of my current system but it looks better

 

60ish read from unraid, 40ish write to unraid. its clear that my everyday working os got problems.

 

is it on the lower side? shall i try different things? i dunno different cables nics routers will it get any better then this? i can get some gigabit switch and gigabit ported netbooks from friends to try.

 

maybe a linux live cd in main pc? what do u think?

 

i really dont know what is clean good working gigabit network file copy speeds so gimme some numbers pls. is ~60M read ~40-50M write ok for a gigabit networked unraid or it must be way higher? got no parity or cache drive just bare drive in unraid.

 

i still have to find whats my main working windows problem tho : ( booo

If you have a parity drive assigned, your writes should be between 30 & 40 MB/s

 

Reads should be much faster -- 60MB is on the low end of what I'd expect; although it's not bad for older drives.    With a newer high-density disk you should see 80MB or faster (I get over 100MB).

 

nice

i will invest in 2tb ones soon found good deals on 2tb external ones will harvest them for my needs and add my various drives near.

 

got no parity drive at all right now its a 2 disk testing server thats all.

 

maybe i shall make a crossover cable and connect 2 nics together bypassing router. can see if i can get any faster like that. eleminating the probable causes 1 by one

 

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update;

 

ok main windows pc is better now sees 50ish read 50ish write from/to unraid. disabled not needed stuff in tcpip it works fine now. will try with a better disk tomorrow thats enough for today hehe

 

thnks for the support guys

gn8

 

boo i just put 2 ST2000DM001 7200 2tb disks on unraid test server with ssd on pc end; same result

send and receive at 45~50 at best... so somethin is weird here. using on board gigabits. unraid is on intel a weak d510mo mainboard with 2 gb ram, pc using onboard realtek gigabit board from gigabyte. since i dont have much time now i cant play more with it.

 

can u pls give me some suggestions i cant think much right now. bought my disks today will start preclearing now.

 

after a good night sleep tomorrow will try connecting 2 nic with a patch cable if that wont cut it, gonna try transfering files with some linux distro on pc end. if i cant get higher after all that i may have to buy steal burrow some new gigabit network cards to test it out ti guess.

 

anything else can u guys add to my try and see list?

 

btw i bought 3 seagate expansion 2tb usb3 the box shaped square ones in a nice discount. ST2000DM001 7200rpm 64mb cahced sata3 disk inside all 3 of them and the usb3 board inside works with any other disk and  even dvd writers incase u wonder

About the only other thing I can suggest is, as I noted earlier,  to use an add-in Gb NIC card -- I'd use an Intel card, as they generally have the best performance with UnRAID.

 

but they are not really easily available to me so i cant get an intel card and test it out tomorrow without some shopping.. and on top of that if that is my problem i will loose a slots to fix it. the atom board practically got no slot at all allready super limited. 2 sata onboard, gonna add a 2 more port in pcie mini slot and 4 in pci slot so the intel boards gigabit better be working. maybe i can get one on my desktop pc tho. still not so easy test without additional gigabit network cards heh

 

i suspect my crappy router most tho its just a cable modem with gigabit ports so it probably is the cause. can get a cheap gigabit switch if that is the problem. will see it tomorrow after a patch cable test.

 

thnks for support now sleepy time for me.

 

No need to replace the router -- just use a Gigabit switch.  Connect the router to the switch (so you'll get IP addresses from the router);  and both devices to the switch (then traffic won't go through the router).

 

I suspect, however, that the issue is more likely one of your NICs than the router.

 

yea thats the plan a cheap gigabit switch then the router for internet access

 

i just hope that my nics are fine and its just easy to fix some silly windoz software problem. 

 

btw how bad the pci 32bit card will criple my unraid if i put 4 disk in that card. will it be able to read and write fine on a single drive but hellish slow when i get parity checks or creating parity data or somethin like that? how bad idea is it i cannot really decide : )

btw how bad the pci 32bit card will criple my unraid if i put 4 disk in that card. will it be able to read and write fine on a single drive but hellish slow when i get parity checks or creating parity data or somethin like that? how bad idea is it i cannot really decide : )

 

A PCI NIC will be a BIG bottleneck -- parity checks will indeed take much longer.  However, when you're simply reading/writing to a single drive on the card (assuming your parity drive is on a motherboard port) it won't be bad.    It's been years since I used a PCI card, but when I originally set up an UnRAID server I did have one.  I don't recall the exact timings, but I believe my parity checks took about 3 times as long as they do with a good PCIe x4 card.

 

heh gary u never read what i type mate i give u a big boooo

 

let me clarify pci-e for a nic on my main work pc if the onboard is problematic and needed, pci sata card for unraid atom mainboard since it got super limited sata slots.  all i wanted to know is how bad can it be with 4 sata disks in a 4 port sata pci card. a bit off topic tho i admit : ) 

heh gary u never read what i type mate i give u a big boooo

 

let me clarify pci-e for a nic on my main work pc if the onboard is problematic and needed, pci sata card for unraid atom mainboard since it got super limited sata slots.  all i wanted to know is how bad can it be with 4 sata disks in a 4 port sata pci card. a bit off topic tho i admit : )

 

Not sure what I didn't read ... you asked how much of a bottleneck a card in the PCI slot would be;  and I gave you my thoughts on that 

hehe yea im tired but u misslead me with the starting sententence "A PCI NIC will be a BIG bottleneck" so i got fixed on that line i think hehe

 

anyway if i can find a better board with lots of sata slot possibilities cheap enough and super low power ill move on but right now i want to give this atom board a life purpose so pci card is a must for now at least for trial and error. a learning curve step i shall try

 

those super micro atom boards looks awesome exactly what i want but i can never find them in my country and will be a fortune/pointless to buy from overseas.

those super micro atom boards looks awesome exactly what i want but i can never find them in my country and will be a fortune/pointless to buy from overseas.

 

The SuperMicro Atom boards are indeed "awesome" 

I have a X7SPA-H-D525-O, and it's a GREAT board -- has 6 SATA ports;  only draws ~20W on idle; and works VERY well.  I get ~ 120MB transfer rates from my 3TB WD Reds 

 

It's unfortunate you can't get them in your location.

 

yea see thats why u dont really care my pittyfull problems looking at ur ideal setup hehe enjoy them in good health mate im off to bed big test day tomorrow if the preclear ends in time tho.

gn8

 

edit;

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look at mine and laugh intel d510mo

 

A PCI NIC will be a BIG bottleneck -- parity checks will indeed take much longer.

 

Actually, a PCI NIC shouldn't be a significant problem, and shouldn't make any difference to parity check speed.  But I thought that the question was about using a four port HBA in the PCI slot.  This would cause the problems you describe.

yea 4 port pci sata card silicon image somethin i forgot which one was it. waiting its arrival will try and see i guess.. hope it wont give me headaches. if it will slow things too much i can just change the mainboard. found a foxcon g31mxp with e5500 cpu in my friends work place they just use it for lightweight web surfing and such so i can just change it with the atom board. that thing got 4 sata ports 1 pcie slot and a pci-e x16 slot loads of possibilities for my needs but i have no idea how power efficient can it be. still preclearing my disks so i cant do to test or play with disks or network in it now.

 

another random thought; got an old small crt tv with scart connection if i can manage i would like to hook it up to unraid machine via vga : )

on a quick look saw some diy solutions on web but they seem to need software adjustments so no go i guess. im gonna keep lookin tho

 

 

A PCI NIC will be a BIG bottleneck -- parity checks will indeed take much longer.

 

Actually, a PCI NIC shouldn't be a significant problem, and shouldn't make any difference to parity check speed.  But I thought that the question was about using a four port HBA in the PCI slot.  This would cause the problems you describe.

 

A PCI adapter doesn't hurt streaming, copying, or most writes (as long as multiple disks on the adapter aren't "in play" at once ==> but it ABSOLUTELY makes a BIG difference in parity check speeds.  Connecting 4 SATA disk to the same controller, limited by the 133MB bandwidth of the PCI bus, results in a very noticeable slowdown in access when you're actively using all 4 disks at once (as in a parity check.    It's been a while, so I don't recall the exact numbers, but on my main UnRAID server, I originally used a 4-port PCI card while I was waiting for my Adaptec 1430SA ... when I changed to the 1430 my parity check time changed from something like 24 hrs to about 9 hrs.

 

Whoops !!  Just realized I had said "NIC" in my original post -- when clearly I meant a PCI SATA card !!

 

I was responding to this:  "... btw how bad the pci 32bit card will criple my unraid if i put 4 disk in that card. will it be able to read and write fine on a single drive but hellish slow when i get parity checks or creating parity data or somethin like that? how bad idea is it i cannot really decide : )"

 

Just as clearly as I made that error, it was also pretty clear what I meant if you read the post 

yea u keep sayin nic even tho i tried to warn u. u like ur nics i guess hehe

 

edit;

heha u edited ur "nic"s and my msg looks weird now