[ale] Network Performance Gurus - Question about Ubuntu basedNAS

[Greg Freemyer]

Shane,

Is that with one client?  Or multiple?

Greg

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 1:56 PM, Shane McKinley <shane at hemc.coop> wrote:
> I use jumbo frames on my iSCSI openfiler system (9000MTU) and I can max
> out 1Gb. This is a quadcore system w/ 4GB RAM.
>
> Shane
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Freemyer [mailto:greg.freemyer at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 1:53 PM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] Network Performance Gurus - Question about Ubuntu
> basedNAS
>
> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Greg Freemyer
> Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
> First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
> http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pd
> f
>
> The Norcross Group
> The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>



-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf

The Norcross Group
The Intersection of Evidence & Technology
http://www.norcrossgroup.com