[ale] Network Performance Gurus - Question about Ubuntu based NAS

[Jim Kinney]

Greg,

I don't see 2 NICs anywhere. I see two hard drives and two USB but no
listing of dual NICs. I pulled the spec sheet (pdf:
http://www.netgear.com/PopUps/RelatedDocument.aspx?DocumentDownloaded=ReadyNAS_Duo_DS_24June08%20pdf&DocumentDownloadedSrc=/upload/product/rnd2000/readynas_duo_ds_24june08.pdf&hasSfID=False&itemID={7F363E0D-9AA7-49FA-987D-78AF5D7210A3}&documentTitle=Data%20Sheet ) 

No listing of dual NICs in this:


General 

      * ReadyNAS Duo Network Attached Storage Device 
      * 2 Serial ATA channels 
      * Compatible with SATA and SATA II HDD 
      * Hot swappable and lockable trays 
      * 10/100/1000 Ethernet 
      * 3 USB 2.0 ports 
      * 256 MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM SO-DIMM 
      * Embedded 64 MB flash memory for OS 
      * Supports Windows, Mac, Linux/UNIX Clients 
      * Setup wizard and easy browser-based interface 
      * NETGEAR Auto-Expandable X-RAID™ 

Volume Management 

      * Journaled file system 
      * User, group, and share-level quotas 
      * Drive set can be removed and migrated to ReadyNAS NV+ or 1100 

Network File Services 

      * CIFS/SMB for Windows® 
      * AFP 3.1 for Mac OS 9/X 
      * NFS v2 / v3 for Linux and UNIX 
      * HTTP/S for web browsers 
      * FTP/S support 
      * RSYNC  

Media Streaming 

      * DLNA Compatible UPnP AV 
      * Logitech SqueezeboxTM
      * Sonos Digital Music Center 
      * Network DVD player compatible 
      * Windows MCE compatible 
      * Sony Playstation 3 
      * Microsoft Xbox 360 

Network Security 

      * Encrypted network logins 
      * Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 

Network Options 

      * DHCP or static IP 
      * NTP 

System Management 

      * Performance options 
      * Device status 
      * Email alerts and event logs 
      * Command Line SSH access 

Backup 

      * Integrated Backup Manager 
      * Programmable backup button 
      * Backup to/from CIFS/NFS/FTP/HTTP 
      * Backup to/from USB disks 
      * Bundled backup software: NTI Shadow for ReadyNAS for Windows and
        Macintosh 

USB Device Support 

      * USB HDD and flash drives 
      * Printers 
      * UPS monitoring and auto shutdown  

Languages 

      * Management UI: English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, and
        Korean 
      * File Name: Unicode 

Electrical 

      * 12V, 5A power adapter, localized to country of sale 
      * Input: 100-240V AC, 50/60 Hz 
      * Power consumption: 35W typical (with 2 x 500 GB disks) 
      * Power-saving mode 

Thermal 

      * 60 mm ball-bearing chassis cooling fan 
      * Fan failure alert 
      * High temperature email alert with auto-shutdown option 

Environmental Specifications 

      * 0° - 95° F 
      * 20% - 80% Humidity (non-condensing) 
      * FCC, UL, CE, C-tick, IC, RoHS compliance 

Physical Specifications 

      * Kensington® lock security hole 
      * Dimension: h x w x d 142 x 101 x 222 mm (5.60 x 3.98 x 8.70 in) 
      * Weight: 2.07 kg/4.56 lb without disks 

Package Contents 

      * ReadyNAS Duo 
      * 2 hard disk trays 
      * Quick Installation Guide 
      * Warranty card 
      * Power adapter 
      * Power cable 
      * Ethernet cable 
      * ReadyNAS Installation CD 
      * ReadyNAS Discovery Utility 
      * NTI Shadow for ReadyNAS for Windows and Macintosh 

Available Configurations 

      * RND2150 – 1 x 500 GB HDD 
      * RND2175 – 1 x 750 GB HDD 
      * RND2110 – 1 x 1000 GB HDD 


On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 13:52 -0400, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> Jim,
> 
> Per the spec, it has 2 NICs.
> 
> And per the review:
> 
> The two gigabit Ethernet ports are provided by two Broadcom BCM5787
> NetLink Gigabit Ethernet Controllers with PCI Express. Those last two
> words are encouraging, since a PCI Express interface should provide
> more bandwidth headroom for gigabit network transfers. But I was
> disappointed to find that QNAP has chosen to not enable jumbo frame
> support in the 509 Pro!
> ...
> QNAP responded that the Broadcom BCM5787 does not support jumbo
> frames. But they chose it because it had the best throughput of the
> chipsets they evaluated.
> 
> Greg
> 
> On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 1:43 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 87MB/s is the theoretical MAX for TCP using normal frame sizes. By using
> > jumbo frames more data per packet is transferred (i.e. lower framing
> > overhead).
> >
> > The 802.3ad load balancing data shows there is some poor network
> > performance in the device. With a single client connection to a bonded
> > dual server it was possible to max out the client line. HOWEVER! A look
> > at the hardware shows the server has a single NIC so it must have been
> > the CLIENT causing the bottleneck.
> >
> > So the 802.3ad data sounds suspicious to me as the server only has a
> > single 1Gbit NIC.
> >
> > On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 13:07 -0400, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> >> Network Guru,
> >>
> >> I've done lots of work with 100 Mbit, but not much performance testing
> >> with 1Gbit/sec Ethernet.
> >>
> >> I'm looking at the QNAP TS509 NAS unit (reviewed at
> >> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30549/75/1/1/).
> >>
> >> It is running Ubuntu internally (customized I'm sure).
> >>
> >> Per the last page of the review, it shows max. read throughput at
> >> about 56 MB/sec. (via what client?)
> >>
> >> But one gets the impression, that it is the Ethenet link that is
> >> limiting the speed, not the disks/CPU.
> >>
> >> And from the post http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=492
> >>
> >> One reads that load balancing via LACL (802.3ad) allowed at least one
> >> TS509 user to get 87 MB/sec with a single client workstation.
> >>
> >> And with two clients, the user is claiming 62 MB/sec per client simultaneously.
> >>
> >> == questions
> >>
> >> 1) With a single socket, does 1 Gigabit ethernet tend to max out at
> >> only 60MB/sec or so?  Or is that more likely a limitation of a Windows
> >> client PC?
> >>
> >> 2) If I get a LACL (802.3ad) compliant switch, do I just need 2 cat5
> >> cables from it to my NAS and my client machines get accelerated via a
> >> single gigabit connection?  Is the answer OS dependent?
> >>
> >> 3.1) In particular, I have a Fedora box I want to connect and get as
> >> much throughput to/from the NAS as possible.  Will I also need to
> >> implement load-balancing on it via LACL?
> >>
> >> 3.2) And what about XP?  Vista?
> >>
> >> 4) For my Fedora box, do any of the performance tests even mean
> >> anything for this NAS, since they were testing via Windows clients.
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >
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> >
> 
> 
>