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[lazzaro4000]

Hi there.

Despite of the 1 Gb component used (a Dlink DGS-1005D switch, the DNS-323, the gigabit ethernet port of the Gigabyte EX38-DQ4 motherboard, 2 x 1.5 mt cat5E cables), I cannot see more than 15 Mbyte/s transfer speed moving big files (4 Gbyte) from pc to nas and viceversa.

What about the maximum disk performances of the nas-323 itself ?

Can you report your maximum disk transfer performaces and the related system components ?

Many thanks.

[AKFubar]

Running Gigabit wired network to NAS.  I have 2 x WD Caviar Green drives installed in NAS.

Using NAS Performance Tester 0.4 here are my results:

Running a 200MB file write on drive s: 3 times...
Iteration 1:     18.03 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     18.29 MB/sec
Iteration 3:     16.98 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (W):     17.76 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running a 200MB file read on drive s: 3 times...
Iteration 1:     23.53 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     27.06 MB/sec
Iteration 3:     27.53 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (R):     26.04 MB/sec
------------------------------
YMMV

[lazzaro4000]

Excuse me for my silly question but, is this Nas Performance Tester 0.4 a "standard" way to measure the transfer speed ? Is it free ?

Many thanks

[AKFubar]

The tester is free and is a benchmarking tool for network performance.  You can download the tool here:
http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance

[fordem]

@AKFubar - try pushing the file size up to the max (2GB) - you'll probably see over 30MB/sec on a read.  Are you running jumbo frame - because if you're not those are stellar results.

Please note - you might want to reduce the number of iterations to two - and - if NASTester appears to be hung or Windows says it's not responding, leave it to run, the problem is that it doesn't refresh the screen between iterations.

@lazzaro4000 - the throughput is affected by the hardware at the other end of the connection - so it's a good idea to get that information as well, and I no longer have the same setup that I did a few years back - my best results are documented somewhere in these forums, if you're curious you can try searching.

In a nutshell (and as close as I can remember) with 2x250GB Seagates in a RAID1 in the NAS, via a Netgear GS108T to an IBM xSeries 206 server running 2x250GB Maxtors also in a RAID1, I was able to just pip 30MB/sec on a read and mid 20's on a write - this was with 9k jumbo frame.

The IBM has since been upgraded to a RAID5 so I've seen a significant drop in throughput - I'm putting together another 206 server (and trying to get memory on eBay) so I may yet post detailed test results.

[fordem]

The tester is free and is a benchmarking tool for network performance.  You can download the tool here:
http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance

If I might be allowed the liberty.

NASTester should not be used as a benchmarking tool for network performance - but rather for NAS performance - the differences are subtle but important.

NASTester creates test files of the selected size and then times the transfer from disk to disk, this is repeated as many times as set, and then the results averaged, after which the entire process is done in the reverse direction.  The time taken to transfer files will be affected by such things as file size, disk speed, disk fragmentation, buffering, the processor and the amount of memory available, the efficiency of the network stack and yes, the network itself.

As you can see there is quite a bit outside of the network involved there - network performance testers do exist and they usually do their transfers from memory rather than disk to disk - in case you're curious, I've clocked the DNS-323 network performance at 400mbps using Ixia's QCheck.

[gunrunnerjohn]

in case you're curious, I've clocked the DNS-323 network performance at 400mbps using Ixia's QCheck.

How do you install the QCheck endpoint on the DNS-323?

[fordem]

There's a downloadable arm endpoint - you'll need fun_plug or at least telnet access to run it - I believe there is a thread somewhere in here with a link to it, but I don't seem to be able to find it.

[beefy314]

Using net meter, I'm getting on the average of 20-22Mbps transferring a single 4gb file to the NAS

[AKFubar]

Hi Fordem and thanks for your comments.  Actually I do have jumbo frames set at 4000 with the above results.

[fordem]

Using net meter, I'm getting on the average of 20-22Mbps transferring a single 4gb file to the NAS

This post highlights three of the biggest problem areas in a thread of this nature ...

1) - the units being used.

20-22Mbps - is that megabit per second or megabytes per second - please note - the first few posts used MByte/sec and MB/sec - if we don't use a common unit the thread becomes meaningless.

2) - the test tools being used.

Net Meter (at least the one I found on the internet with Google - may not be the same one - and which by the way, reports its results in mbps, presumably megabits-per-second since that is the norm for bandwidth measurements) is a bandwidth measuring tool and it presumably reports what it sees - unfortunately the traffic it's measuring is a bit more than just that data that's being written to the disk - data packets on a network include network "overhead" such source & destination addresses and in some cases "padding" to fill out frames.  This prevents us from doing a simple "divide by 8" to convert bits to bytes.  This is the very reason that NAStester was written.

3) - Details

Despite my raising this point in an earlier post - there is a total lack of information about what's in the DNS-323, the network itself and the equipment at the other end of the transfer.

[cklassen]

regarding "the units being used".

the standard is:

MB/mB = megabyte
Mb/mb = megabit

so unless you are not abiding to this standard, than 'the units being used" is self explanatory and implied

regards,

[gunrunnerjohn]

MB/mB = megabyte
Mb/mb = megabit

Way too much potential for confusion, why not just specify mbyte or mbit, no chance for misinterpretation.

[AKFubar]

Running a 2000MB file write on drive s: twice...
Iteration 1:     17.73 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     17.83 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (W):     17.78 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running a 2000MB file read on drive s: twice...
Iteration 1:     29.02 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     25.34 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (R):     27.18 MB/sec
------------------------------

[fordem]

regarding "the units being used".

the standard is:

MB/mB = megabyte
Mb/mb = megabit

so unless you are not abiding to this standard, than 'the units being used" is self explanatory and implied

regards,

Thank you for the explanation cklassen - unfortunately you neglected to include the Mbps that beefy314 used in his post and to which I specifically referred (did you notice I quoted him?), leaving us to interpret that.

Nevertheless - you have given me another opportunity to highlight the need both to be absolutely clear in the units used, and to describe the network.

Beefy314 didn't tell us what sort of network he was using, he just says 20-22Mbps - which we will have to assume is megabits per second, since you claim that Mb should be megabits.

Now - over a 100mbps ethernet LAN my DNS-323 delivers something in the region of 80 megabits per second throughput - so beefy314's 20-22 megabits per second could be considered as appallingly low.

On the other hand - I do know that the same DNS-323 will deliver 20-22 megabits per second over an 802.11g (54mbps) wireless network, and over gigabit ethernet it is quite capable of 20-22 megabytes per sec.

Maybe it's just coincidental that the particular numbers posted by beefy are acheivable, with different units, over different types of network, but it sure does add to the confusion doesn't it?