I've noticed recently that my server is running really slow when it comes to file transfer speeds.  I don't know when this started, because I primarily use the server to run Plex and that has been running fine.  But I was trying to copy some files off the server and noticed I'm only getting 5-7 MB/s.  I used to get 80-100 MB/s a while ago.  All of the stats on the Main tab look good, all green, no warnings, plenty of free space on the storage and cache drives.  I ran a parity check just in case, I ran mover, and I upgraded to v6.5.0, but nothing made a difference.  I also tested the file transfer from my desktop that is hardwired to the router and my laptop which is wireless.  I rebooted the server after the upgrade and then attempted a file transfer, canceled the file transfer and then downloaded the logs.  I've attached the logs, but let me know if you need me to test anything else to show up in the logs.  Thank you!

 

Unraid v6.5.0

Dockers: Plex and CrashPlan

tower-diagnostics-20180317-0757.zip

18 minutes ago, zero_koop said:

But I was trying to copy some files off the server and noticed I'm only getting 5-7 MB/s. 

Is this to cache or array? First thing to do is to transfer a large file to cache and then the same file directly to the array, if same slow speed it's likely a network problem.

Now my desktop is transferring files to/from the server at around 100 MB/s.  Sometimes it slow for a few seconds, but then picks back up again.  I'm a bit perplexed because just before I posted this, and all last night while I was working on this, neither computer (desktop or laptop) would transfer higher than 7 MB/s.  But my wireless laptop is still transferring at the slower speed.  It's a good quality (ASUS RT-N66U) wireless N router so it should be going more like 40 MB/s I think... But my wireless speed is not an UnRAID issue I don't think.

But I do have a couple remaining questions:
1) Is there any reason to think that my slow wireless speed could (at least sometimes) affect my wired transfer speed (as it seems to have been the case up until just recently)?
2) In case this happens again, what might have been the next step if one or both of the cache/data drives were still slow?

Edited March 17, 20188 yr by zero_koop
fixed router model

15 minutes ago, zero_koop said:

Is there any reason to think that my slow wireless speed could (at least sometimes) affect my wired transfer speed (as it seems to have been the case up until just recently)?

It shoudn't, but sometimes strange things happen.

 

15 minutes ago, zero_koop said:

In case this happens again, what might have been the next step if one or both of the cache/data drives were still slow?

Course of action will depend if the problem is with both cache and array, as this would suggest a network problem, or just cache or array, as this would suggest an unRAID problem.

One more question, maybe my old laptop is just getting slow and that's the issue with wireless (the laptop does not have a LAN port either).  But I don't have any other wireless devices besides my phones.  Is there an app that I could use on my Android phone to browse files and transfer to/from the server?

I use the Asus file manager

2 hours ago, zero_koop said:

One more question, maybe my old laptop is just getting slow and that's the issue with wireless (the laptop does not have a LAN port either).  But I don't have any other wireless devices besides my phones.  Is there an app that I could use on my Android phone to browse files and transfer to/from the server?

 

 Double check that you have the latest NIC chip and network drivers installed on that Laptop.  I had an issue of slow transfer speeds with my 2011 desktop computer that I finally traced to an out-of-date NIC driver.  Apparently, it had not problems at 100Mbs  but choked when attempting to support 1Gbs speeds.  Problem was compounded because sometimes it seemed to run at a higher speeds and then later slow down.  This make it very difficult to figure out if any change made was the solution since the speed might be higher for a period of time.

3 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

I use the Asus file manager

Great, that works, but it didn't show me the actual transfer speed.  But based on my counting as the remaining MB ticked down I estimate that it was still a somewhat slow speed (5-7 MB/s).

 

34 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

 

 Double check that you have the latest NIC chip and network drivers installed on that Laptop.  I had an issue of slow transfer speeds with my 2011 desktop computer that I finally traced to an out-of-date NIC driver.  Apparently, it had not problems at 100Mbs  but choked when attempting to support 1Gbs speeds.  Problem was compounded because sometimes it seemed to run at a higher speeds and then later slow down.  This make it very difficult to figure out if any change made was the solution since the speed might be higher for a period of time.

Good point.  Based on my test with my phone I think it might be more router related, but I'll definitely check into that too.  Thanks everyone!