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Forum Discussion
Help optimize the performance of NAS 314
I had read through some of the posts which "admin" recommend before posting however some are not specific to RN 314. I will try these tweaks from others to see if it help: -turn off Jumbo frames o...
I suggest that you begin by benchmarking the actual system performance using NAStester, so you can get some repeatable measurements that can be duplicated by other forum members. The download is here: http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance
That will require a windows machine.
I agree that you should check the SMART stats for all drives, as disk errors will certainly stall the NAS when they occur. If you don't have email alerts configured, you ought to set that up.
I'd also emphasize xeltros's point on the network. If some of your users are running fast ethernet or wifi, then their performance will certainly be limited by the network. On Gigabit, write performance is degraded if the client machines have the wrong MTU (for instance if they have jumbo frames enabled, but the network doesn't support it). The jumbo frame setting on the NAS is only part of that puzzle. Those settings appear in clients (and in many cases switches).
Packet loss within the network will also kill user performance, and might not be as noticeable for other applications (for instance web browser use). A mismatched full duplex/half duplex negotiation is one potential cause (though not as common as it used to be). Often that results in a 1-2% persistent packet loss. Bad cables, or inadequate shielding in cables running through plenums can also create packet loss issues. Unfortunately the OS6 gui doesn't give you much information about packet loss. You could use SSH to get more data on physical layer issues (carrier issues, drops, overruns, etc).
Also, you can increase multiuser throughput if you use link aggregation ( for instance LACP) on the NAS. That requires support on your switch. If you are running multiple switches, you might also need to add LAG on the connections between them.
BTW, in my experience it is pretty rare for hard drive performance to be the bottleneck - at least for large file transfers. Large numbers of small files, or database I/O could be limited by hard drive latencies though. Since the RN314 supports SSD, you could potentially rebuild the NAS using flexraid, with an SSD volume and a normal RAID volume for traditional drives. Then put databases, etc on the smaller SSD volume. That would be quite a bit of work, but it is an option. One downside is that the ReadyNAS hardware compatibility list for SSDs is weak.
That will require a windows machine.
I agree that you should check the SMART stats for all drives, as disk errors will certainly stall the NAS when they occur. If you don't have email alerts configured, you ought to set that up.
I'd also emphasize xeltros's point on the network. If some of your users are running fast ethernet or wifi, then their performance will certainly be limited by the network. On Gigabit, write performance is degraded if the client machines have the wrong MTU (for instance if they have jumbo frames enabled, but the network doesn't support it). The jumbo frame setting on the NAS is only part of that puzzle. Those settings appear in clients (and in many cases switches).
Packet loss within the network will also kill user performance, and might not be as noticeable for other applications (for instance web browser use). A mismatched full duplex/half duplex negotiation is one potential cause (though not as common as it used to be). Often that results in a 1-2% persistent packet loss. Bad cables, or inadequate shielding in cables running through plenums can also create packet loss issues. Unfortunately the OS6 gui doesn't give you much information about packet loss. You could use SSH to get more data on physical layer issues (carrier issues, drops, overruns, etc).
Also, you can increase multiuser throughput if you use link aggregation ( for instance LACP) on the NAS. That requires support on your switch. If you are running multiple switches, you might also need to add LAG on the connections between them.
BTW, in my experience it is pretty rare for hard drive performance to be the bottleneck - at least for large file transfers. Large numbers of small files, or database I/O could be limited by hard drive latencies though. Since the RN314 supports SSD, you could potentially rebuild the NAS using flexraid, with an SSD volume and a normal RAID volume for traditional drives. Then put databases, etc on the smaller SSD volume. That would be quite a bit of work, but it is an option. One downside is that the ReadyNAS hardware compatibility list for SSDs is weak.
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