Slow transfer with RN104

Scubbie wrote:
...The drives are formatted using RAID6 & X-RAID...

If you are using RAID-6 of course you will end up at 8 TB. You want RAID-5 (which is the default for X-RAID). Did you mistype?

Write speeds with RAID-5 should be on the order of 40 MB/s with antivirus protection off. RAID-6 speeds on the RN104 are a lot slower.

The NAS isn't fast enough to benefit from link aggregation, so I'd just connect one ethernet port and forget about that.

Thank you for responding StephenB,

We tried RAID 5 initially and the transfer rate was as dismal then, with no more than around 100mb/s on a 1Gbit connection.

The format process for RAID-5 took around 8 days to complete.

It was when it was initially set up with RAID 5 that I then linked the two Ethernet ports in the hope that this might improve things, but obviously it didn't.

Well, RAID-6 performance will never be better than RAID-5 on any NAS, so playing with that is also a waste of time.

Overall, the 100 mb/s issue sounds like network, but I don't think it should take 8 days to format the raid array either.

Maybe start over on the RAID array - this time just install one drive, and do a factory reset (xraid). Get that working well with a single gigabit connection, and after that expand the array. A single drive on the RN104 should have about 50 MB/S write speeds (a bit faster than RAID-5). Keep Antivirus off, and don't install any add-ons..

If this is recently purchased (e.g., within 3 months) you might also use Netgear support.

I am thinking that you might also
(a) try a different network cable and switch/router port (perhaps "borrowing" the connection from the other NAS.
(b) confirm at the router and the NAS that the NAS ethernet is negotiating gigabit.
(c) check ethernet stats for lost packets, RX/TX issues. I think you'll need to look at the logs for that (info in the web ui is limited).
(e) Check the drive health for all drives. Possibly in a PC with Seatools.

Ok, the NAS is back to RAID 5, with X-RAID lit as green.

The capacity is now 10.9 TB, which is fine.

However the transfer rate is terrible once more - about 10.8MiB/s.

Having wiped the unit, there are currently no other apps installed.

Cables have been swapped around. The Switch and router both report that the NAS is connected at 1Gbit.

The computer can move files to/from another NAS without any major issues and achieves in the region of 70-80MiB/s with the same computer.

Do you have any suggestions as to why the transfer rate is so bad?

Are you testing both read and write speeds? (btw nastester is a convenient tool here - http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance).

More information on your network setup would be useful.

If jumbo frames are turned on, try turning them off.

Thank you once more for responding StephenB.

That tool is certainly useful and is showing something interesting.

First the network setup:

Netgear router (1Gbit connections, can't recall the model at the moment)
1Gbit Netgear 24 port Network Switch

The HP MadiaSmart, running WHS (I'll refer to this as WHS n future) is connected to the switch, so too is the PC. The RN104 was connected to the router, but the same results have been seen when it has been connected to the switch. He has now moved the NAS to the switch, where it would have moved in the end anyway.

The NAS is reporting that it is connected at 1Gbit, so too has the router and switch (LEDs)

Speed results

Basically the speed results give a different perspective to all of this.

WHS

Running a 400MB file write on \\home-server-1\videos 5 times... Iteration 1: 80.77 MB/sec Iteration 2: 82.46 MB/sec Iteration 3: 96.76 MB/sec Iteration 4: 85.57 MB/sec Iteration 5: 86.25 MB/sec ----------------------------- Average (W): 86.36 MB/sec ----------------------------- Running a 400MB file read on \\home-server-1\videos 5 times... Iteration 1: 117.05 MB/sec Iteration 2: 113.11 MB/sec Iteration 3: 117.01 MB/sec Iteration 4: 117.22 MB/sec Iteration 5: 117.44 MB/sec ----------------------------- Average (R): 116.37 MB/sec

RN104

Running a 400MB file write on \\Home-Server-2\Music 5 times... Iteration 1: 58.02 MB/sec Iteration 2: 58.82 MB/sec Iteration 3: 59.64 MB/sec Iteration 4: 57.76 MB/sec Iteration 5: 58.53 MB/sec ----------------------------- Average (W): 58.55 MB/sec ----------------------------- Running a 400MB file read on \\Home-Server-2\Music 5 times... Iteration 1: 65.28 MB/sec Iteration 2: 68.52 MB/sec Iteration 3: 65.31 MB/sec Iteration 4: 66.32 MB/sec Iteration 5: 68.67 MB/sec ----------------------------- Average (R): 66.82 MB/sec -----------------------------

Now to me that looks a lot more acceptable. Using the Task Manager, the RN104 finally bumped the 500mb/s display.

He's now been able to check with another computer and that was copying from the WHS to the RN104 at around 30MB/s.

This leaves me with a very clear impression that the PC doesn't like the RN104 for some reason. I am thinking things through as we take a break and I am suspecting that perhaps the AV software is not set up correctly or is messing it all up.

For reference, my own 2 RN came out as follows:

RN Ultra 2+ (RAID 1)

Average (W): 58.81 MB/sec Average (R): 69.62 MB/sec

RN Ultra 6+ (X-RAID)

Average (W): 102.00 MB/sec Average (R): 62.87 MB/sec

Looking at the RN U6+ you can see what I would have expected from the beginning from the RN104. The test results bore this out. Using both Filezilla (FTP software) and Window's copy command, we have been seeing results around 10MB/s.

If you have any other ideas please let us know. In the mean time it's back to the grindstone to find out what the cause it.

I'm glad it was useful. But like you I am a bit puzzled by the discrepancy with window's copy command.

Hi there,

An update on this....

We've managed to get the RN104 formatted to 10.8TB using the X-RAID. Even with all four drives plugged in it took its time to format everything.

After more testing it was found that when using Filezilla to copy items from the PC (or WHS) to the RN104 the transfer speed is around 100mb/s. When using the Windows copy command the speed improved to around 400mb/s.

Its working now and I believe he's happier with it than he was previously.

The disks have to be synced sector by sector to setup the RAID. You can use the NAS while the sync is taking place but performance will be lower than what it normally is.

Yes you can use it, which is what he did to some extent. However he stopped as the sync time increased rapidly to many more days to complete.