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Forum Discussion
Performance halved at a stroke (ReadyNAS Duo, 4.1.8) ...
In a busy few weeks, my little ReadyNAS Duo's performance seems to have halved at a stroke. The problem seems to be a consequence of upgrading to RAIDiator 4.1.8 (release) and performing a full facto...
So, I was wondering why most/all of us here are running Mac's?
We all see the 4.1.8 performance problem consistently and clearly, across the whole range of protocols (CIFS, AFS, NFS) and with the widest range of clients we could expect (Macs, Windows PC's, Linux boxes included) but what we don't see is a simple, dedicated PC network (home or office) and a ReadyNAS ... no doubt the most common configuration out there. Something must set us apart, no?
In a tiny Eureka moment I figured this can't be the clients themselves and must be something unique to our ReadyNAS configuration ... something unique to folks supporting Macs ... and as I don't run Time Machine the AFP/Bonjour services must be at fault.
After a little firmware changing, reconfiguration and benchmarking, I suspect this may well be the case.
Here how the (good) 4.1.7 firmware performs (*1) ...
- Under 4.1.7 with AFP and Bonjour disabled, I measure read speeds of 19.9 MB/s
- Under 4.1.7 with AFP and Bonjour enabled, I measure identical read speeds of 19.9 MB/s
That's our baseline. Here's how our (broken) 4.1.8 firmware compares ...
- Under 4.1.8 with AFP and Bonjour disabled, I measure read speeds of 18.45 MB/s. A small drop but ...
- Under 4.1.8 with AFP and Bonjour enabled, read speeds are reduced to just 8.2 MB/s. A massive drop. (*2).
Furthermore, disabling the services and re-testing restores performance to the 18.45 MB/s range. (*3)
I'll be the first to say this isn't definitive testing (if someone could repeat this independently, I'd be really grateful) but it does seem to suggest the AFP and/or Bonjour services in 4.1.8 are are causing the problem. Next, I'll be checking the old 4.1.8 Beta to see if it suffers similarly as ... if it's OK, I'll be switching over.
Thanks,
Justin
*1 All these tests were run under Windows 7 using CIFS, a fixed-size file and a stopwatch. I did disable the ReadyNAS' media/streaming services to ensure they don't skew anything by reindexing content after firmware changes but ... other than that ... the config here should match my original post. Given the test methodology, all these measurements are approximate but should be fine for the job.
*2 Running these tests a few times, I did notice the results here could be inconsistent. On at least one occasion, I enabled the AFP and Bonjour services to find read-speeds comparable to the preceding step. Rebooting the ReadyNAS returned performance to its sub-standard 10 MB/s level.
*3 I also tested write speeds which were more consistent. Approximately 13 MB/s for 4.1.7 and 10.8 MB/s for 4.1.8, these don't seem to be affected significantly by AFP/Bonjour.
We all see the 4.1.8 performance problem consistently and clearly, across the whole range of protocols (CIFS, AFS, NFS) and with the widest range of clients we could expect (Macs, Windows PC's, Linux boxes included) but what we don't see is a simple, dedicated PC network (home or office) and a ReadyNAS ... no doubt the most common configuration out there. Something must set us apart, no?
In a tiny Eureka moment I figured this can't be the clients themselves and must be something unique to our ReadyNAS configuration ... something unique to folks supporting Macs ... and as I don't run Time Machine the AFP/Bonjour services must be at fault.
After a little firmware changing, reconfiguration and benchmarking, I suspect this may well be the case.
Here how the (good) 4.1.7 firmware performs (*1) ...
- Under 4.1.7 with AFP and Bonjour disabled, I measure read speeds of 19.9 MB/s
- Under 4.1.7 with AFP and Bonjour enabled, I measure identical read speeds of 19.9 MB/s
That's our baseline. Here's how our (broken) 4.1.8 firmware compares ...
- Under 4.1.8 with AFP and Bonjour disabled, I measure read speeds of 18.45 MB/s. A small drop but ...
- Under 4.1.8 with AFP and Bonjour enabled, read speeds are reduced to just 8.2 MB/s. A massive drop. (*2).
Furthermore, disabling the services and re-testing restores performance to the 18.45 MB/s range. (*3)
I'll be the first to say this isn't definitive testing (if someone could repeat this independently, I'd be really grateful) but it does seem to suggest the AFP and/or Bonjour services in 4.1.8 are are causing the problem. Next, I'll be checking the old 4.1.8 Beta to see if it suffers similarly as ... if it's OK, I'll be switching over.
Thanks,
Justin
*1 All these tests were run under Windows 7 using CIFS, a fixed-size file and a stopwatch. I did disable the ReadyNAS' media/streaming services to ensure they don't skew anything by reindexing content after firmware changes but ... other than that ... the config here should match my original post. Given the test methodology, all these measurements are approximate but should be fine for the job.
*2 Running these tests a few times, I did notice the results here could be inconsistent. On at least one occasion, I enabled the AFP and Bonjour services to find read-speeds comparable to the preceding step. Rebooting the ReadyNAS returned performance to its sub-standard 10 MB/s level.
*3 I also tested write speeds which were more consistent. Approximately 13 MB/s for 4.1.7 and 10.8 MB/s for 4.1.8, these don't seem to be affected significantly by AFP/Bonjour.
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