Hello Everyone,

 

I recently acquired a IBM x3200 M3 Server and decided that it could do some use as a NAS with all the whistles. I started with FreeNAS not knowing about unRaid until recently. And wow, I have to say I love the ease of setup compared to freeNAS. Although, I do know that I am now missing out on some features such as Snapshots and the ZFS file system.   I have successfully installed unRaid and got an array set up and working.

I wanted to know if there are any ways to improve my setup as far as performance goes. Currently I have my unRaid box connected to my router (Gigabit)  with CAT6a cable through-out my house. I also have two Netgear Gigabit 8 port switches that lead upstairs as well.

 

I am getting 112/s MB up / download connection between a PC in between my router. Are there any other settings that I can change in order to gain more speed? (I have attached a screenshot of the shares settings)

 

If it matters at all I have added my unRaid box to my domain as well.

Specifications:

Drives:

Parity: 1 X 2TB Hitachi 7200RPM
Cache: 1 X 120GB SSD SanDisk Plus

Disk 1: 2TB WD RED 5400RPM (Using M1015 IBM card flashed to IT Mode)

Disk 2: 2TB WD RED 5400RPM (Using M1015 IBM card flashed to IT Mode) 

 

From unRaid:

Model: IBM x3200 M3 73284u

M/B: IBM - 69Y1171

CPU: Intel® Xeon® CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz

HVM: Enabled

IOMMU: Enabled

Cache: 8192 kB, 32 kB, 256 kB

Memory: 16 GB (max. installable capacity 32 GB) 

Network: bond0: adaptive load balancing, mtu 1500 
 eth0: 1000 Mb/s, full duplex, mtu 1500 
 eth1: 1000 Mb/s, full duplex, mtu 1500

Kernel: Linux 4.9.10-unRAID x86_64

OpenSSL: 1.0.2k 

 

Edited March 6, 20179 yr by Tbigs2011

you're essentially maxing gigabit, assuming your MB is megabytes and not megabits. you can fine tune here and there and eek out a few more MBps or switch over to 10gbe. But that entails a bit more financial commitment....

If 10GbE is out of reach due to costs or other reasons, you could look at LACP. However, you'll still have to have a capable switch and nics.

 

That said, if gigabit speeds are fine for your client machines but you have a bottleneck at the server then a good switch and nic bonding on the server might be enough.

Thanks for all your help! I suppose it's doing its' job then  .

 

I am trying to answer this question as well.

How important is pre-clearing your drives?

I didn't do this and I was wondering if it would be a bad idea to continue without ever pre-clearing them.

I guess I could check and just take one array disk offline. I do have a backup if need be but do you think this would even work? Would that be a good idea?

Edited March 7, 20179 yr by Tbigs2011

Pre-clearing stress tests the drive, and preps it so that it can be added quickly to the array.  If you have already added the drive to the array there's no reason to back and pre-clear now.