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Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?

Blanker-2
Guide

link aggregation between two NAS'?

I have a synology with 4 ports and a RN312 with 2 ports.  Can I connect 2 ethernet cables directly between these 2 NAS' to speed up file transers to 2Gbps?

 

I bonded ports 3 & 4 in the Synology.  Not sure if I did that correctly.  But how do I do it on the readynas?  I can't access the readynas with both cables going to the synology.  And if I leave just the one cable going to my switch and then bond the LANs I'm afraid I will then lose access to the Readynas.  I am guessing I would then have to reset the whole thing?

 

Any adviceCapturee.JPG

Model: RN31200|ReadyNAS 300 Series 2-Bay
Message 1 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?


@Blanker-2 wrote:

But how do I do it on the readynas?  I can't access the readynas with both cables going to the synology.  And if I leave just the one cable going to my switch and then bond the LANs I'm afraid I will then lose access to the Readynas.  I am guessing I would then have to reset the whole thing?

 

What you need to do here is connect both NAS to a smart (or managed) switch, and then aggregate the links.  Also connect that switch to your main network. A GS108Tv2 is one of several Netgear switches that you could use.  These switches have their own Web UI, and you use that to configure the link aggregation on the switch (coordinating that with the NAS configuration).

 

As far as the bonding options go, you'd want to use either Round Robin in the ReadyNAS (with a static lag configuration in the switch), or LACP in both the ReadyNAS and the switch.  I don't know what the aggregation modes are called in the Synology.  If your goal is to speed up NAS->NAS backups, the static lag is better.  LACP is designed to limit each data flow to 1 gigabit, so it won't improve the performance.

 

However, my advice is not to bother with any of this.  If you have a lot of simultaneous users accessing the NAS, then link aggregation to the NAS can improve throughput.  But home NAS users generally don't have much simultaneous access.  And incremental backup speeds will be fast even over a single ethernet connection - likely less than half an hour to back up the Synology.  So there isn't a lot of gain for most home NAS owners - not worth the hassle.

Message 2 of 11
Blanker-2
Guide

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?

Thanks for the swift response Steve. I only have an unmanaged switch. I was hoping the 4 ports in the synology would act as a switch. No? It's only me connecting. Most file transfer backups are in the realm of 30-100GB so I thought 2Gbps would be twice as fast. Appreciate the help.
Message 3 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?


@Blanker-2 wrote:
I was hoping the 4 ports in the synology would act as a switch.

No, they won't act as a switch (and with the ReadyNAS there is no connection sharing, so you can't access a NAS over your home network when when it is directly connected to another NAS)

 

If you are limited by the network speed, then 100GB should take 1000 seconds (about 17 minutes).  If they are taking much longer than that, then link aggregation probably won't speed things up.

Message 4 of 11
Blanker-2
Guide

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?

Ok. I have been reading that people have been directly connecting from their pc to the 10GbE card in the nas and then using one of the four 1GbE ports on the nas to the switch (for pc internet and access to lan). So this got me thinking about all the variables. But I get it, 10GbE sounds like it's more about bandwidth than frequency.

I get a steady 111MBs on file transfers, which is fine but faster is always welcome. Though, it seems the more I read the struggle is real. Speed is going to be limited by the weakest link. Pc is reading from an ssd, so 500MBs, but the writing to the raid array on the nas I'm guessing will be the bottleneck here.

Appreciate the help and knowledge.
Message 5 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?


@Blanker-2 wrote:
Ok. I have been reading that people have been directly connecting from their pc to the 10GbE card in the nas and then using one of the four 1GbE ports on the nas to the switch (for pc internet and access to lan). 

That sounds more like using the Synology as a router (similar to the Microsoft ICS - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/324286/how-to-set-up-internet-connection-sharing-in-windows...

 

But if you want to get the best performance with link aggregation, just get a smart switch - ideally one that has enough ports to connect all the ports in all your devices.  You can get an 8 port smart switch for about $60 US, and get a 16 port one for about $120.  

 


@Blanker-2 wrote:
Speed is going to be limited by the weakest link. Pc is reading from an ssd, so 500MBs, but the writing to the raid array on the nas I'm guessing will be the bottleneck here.

The CPU speed in the RN312 could also limit performance. 

 

Faster speeds are certainly possible. But you'd need something faster than gigabit ethernet running in at least one of your PCs to be make much use of it.  

 

 

FWIW, I see 500-600 MB/s speeds with NAStester on my own setup.  That's between a PC I use as an application server and my RN526x.  Both are equipped with 10 gigabit ethernet and are connected through a small 10 gigabit switch.  The NAS uses 4x6TB RAID-5 with WD60EFRX disks.  

 

10GBase-T is still too expensive for me to put everywhere (and laptops don't have it).  So our other PCs all run gigabit ethernet, and they are limited to ~100 MB/s (and of course less when using WiFi). 

 

 

 

Message 6 of 11
Blanker-2
Guide

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?

I assume u get 500-600MB in actual transfers? This is good to know. Maybe I will start off with LAG this way I can use it with the RN316 if/when I go 10GbE.

What do u recommend for a NIC for the pc? Some of the dual nic cards are almost the same cost as the 10GbE nics.
Message 7 of 11
schumaku
Guru

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?


@Blanker-2 wrote:
What do u recommend for a NIC for the pc? Some of the dual nic cards are almost the same cost as the 10GbE nics.

The Aquantia AQC-107 equipped 10 GbE 10GBase-T cards are a good choice. Avoid the Tehuti TN-4010 variants due to driver issues and sometimes average performance.

Alternate choices are cards with SFP+ interfaces, for shorter distances to be connected using SFP+ DAC (direct access) cables.

@StephenB wrote:
@Blanker-2 wrote:
Ok. I have been reading that people have been directly connecting from their pc to the 10GbE card in the nas and then using one of the four 1GbE ports on the nas to the switch (for pc internet and access to lan). 

That sounds more like using the Synology as a router (similar to the Microsoft ICS - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/324286/how-to-set-up-internet-connection-sharing-in-windows...

 

No routing involved at all. Just dedicated 10 GbE networks, typically direct connections, with dedicated TCP/IP subnetworks.

With the QNAP Virtual Switch we can do much more - flexible software defined networking does offer for example the ability to combine eg. a 1+1 Gb LAG and a 10 Gb into the same L2 network.

 

@StephenB wrote:

10GBase-T is still too expensive for me to put everywhere (and laptops don't have it).  So our other PCs all run gigabit ethernet, and they are limited to ~100 MB/s (and of course less when using WiFi). 

 

10 Gb Ethernet does require to much power for mobile devices like notebooks. We can expect MultiGig (like 2.5 Gb  or 2.5/5 Gb) interfaces there with newer notebook systems - so MultiGig capability on the switch, ideally some 10GBase-T and SFP+ port mix, can be key.

Message 8 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?


@schumaku wrote:

@Blanker-2 wrote:
What do u recommend for a NIC for the pc? Some of the dual nic cards are almost the same cost as the 10GbE nics.

The Aquantia AQC-107 equipped 10 GbE 10GBase-T cards are a good choice. Avoid the Tehuti TN-4010 variants due to driver issues and sometimes average performance.


I picked up one of the ASUS XG-C100C cards when they first came out.  They use the Aquantia AQC-107 controller. 

 


@schumaku wrote: 

10 Gb Ethernet does require to much power for mobile devices like notebooks. We can expect MultiGig (like 2.5 Gb  or 2.5/5 Gb) interfaces there with newer notebook systems - so MultiGig capability on the switch, ideally some 10GBase-T and SFP+ port mix, can be key.


I get the power issue - though I'd be fine with having 10GBase-T (or MultiGig) NIC in a laptop docking station.

 

The most recent laptop I bought (for my wife) had no ethernet at all.   There are a couple of Thunderbolt 10GBaseT adapters out there - they might be ok for a home office.

 

The switches are still very expensive -  around 10x more than gigabit.  That will certainly limit the number of 10GBase-T ports I deploy.

Message 9 of 11
Blanker-2
Guide

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?

Thanks guys. I did see in my synology dhcp settings for all the lan ports. Gonna take a breather on this since it’s getting a bit too complicated for me. 

Message 10 of 11
jimk1963
Luminary

Re: link aggregation between two NAS'?


@StephenB wrote:

@schumaku wrote:

@Blanker-2 wrote:
What do u recommend for a NIC for the pc? Some of the dual nic cards are almost the same cost as the 10GbE nics.

The Aquantia AQC-107 equipped 10 GbE 10GBase-T cards are a good choice. Avoid the Tehuti TN-4010 variants due to driver issues and sometimes average performance.


I picked up one of the ASUS XG-C100C cards when they first came out.  They use the Aquantia AQC-107 controller. 

 


@schumaku wrote: 

10 Gb Ethernet does require to much power for mobile devices like notebooks. We can expect MultiGig (like 2.5 Gb  or 2.5/5 Gb) interfaces there with newer notebook systems - so MultiGig capability on the switch, ideally some 10GBase-T and SFP+ port mix, can be key.


I get the power issue - though I'd be fine with having 10GBase-T (or MultiGig) NIC in a laptop docking station.

 

The most recent laptop I bought (for my wife) had no ethernet at all.   There are a couple of Thunderbolt 10GBaseT adapters out there - they might be ok for a home office.

 

The switches are still very expensive -  around 10x more than gigabit.  That will certainly limit the number of 10GBase-T ports I deploy.


Late reply but for new readers: Re: Asus XG-C100C, I learned the hard way that it does not support WakeOnLAN (WOL). Asus states it plainly on their product support page FAQ (of course I didn't read that until I bought/installed the card and chased Windows forums for 2 hours trying to figure out why WOL options were all grayed out). An Amazon customer says Asus Customer Service confirmed it's a HW limitation of the card. The Aquantia 10GB NIC card does support WOL, so if that matters to you, suggest to go with Aquantia NIC. 

Model: RN526X|ReadyNAS 526X – 6 Bays with up to 60TB total storage
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