RT-AC68U, samba, speed & CPU usage

[bozho]

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but I'm having samba problems with a USB3 drive.

I'm using Merlin 380.59 on RT-AC68U. I have a 750 GB 2.5" drive plugged in using a USB3 enclosure (with a separate power supply) and shared using samba. The drive is formatted to EXT4.

Whenever I copy file to/from the drive (from a Win10 machine), top speed is ~25 MB/s and both router's cores are at ~100%.

I've tried things I found on this forum: disabling the "Reducing USB3 interference" option in the Wireless->Professional settings and reducing "Tx power adjustment" setting for both 2.4 and 5 GHz (and rebooting the router afterwards)

I've tried using a custom samba configuration using "use sendfile = no" with no effect. I'm sure that the custom config was used, since I changed one of the shares as well.

I've attached the generated smb.conf file.

Any ideas how to fix the problem?

Thank you.

 

[pete y testing]

what are you transferring to and from and how is it connected to the router

as 25MB/s is pretty good if its going to a device connected to the wifi and that device is 2 x 2 867M

also its best to use ether fat32 or ntfs for drives connected to the routers usb 3

these where my results with a ntfs formatted drive ,

USB 3 testing

---------

usb3 to ethernet

read 52 MB/s write 38 Mb/s

-------------------

--------------------

usb 3 to asus pce-ac68 at 10 feet

read 33.5 Mb/s write 27.7 MB/s

--------------------

---------------------

usb 3 to belkin 1200 AC usb at 10 feet

read 23.5 MB/s 21.5 MB/s write

 

[bozho]

Hi,

Of course I forgot something

I tested with a large file (~2GB) from a machine with a wired connection.

I will try FAT32 and NTFS next.

How stable/safe is NTFS on Asus?

Thank you.

 

[pete y testing]

ntfs is fine

 

[bozho]

Ok, I've tried NTFS as well, same results (~25MB/s)

I've also plugged the drive+enclosure directly into the Win10 box, got around 100MB/s.

I'm guessing 25MB/s is AC68's maximum, considering both cores get to 100%...

 

[pesche]

I just plugged in a USB3 drive to my AC68U and got similar speeds like you.
Did you found any solution?

20-25Mb/s is far from the 50-60Mb/s some users reported.
Especially the 100% CPU load is strange. It doesn't matter if I copy via SMB, FTP or just format the drive from console...
The web front end is almost not responding during HD access. Probably due to the CPU load.

 

[pesche]

My old 1TB USB2.0 drive is faster (writing) then the new USB3.0 one.
The CPU load is slightly lower... how is that possible? Is this a bug?

I'm running the latest merlin build 380.63_2 for the ac68u.

Just for comparision I tried to connect my Sandisk USB3 Extreme 64GB thumb drive. Seams like it is not working at all. It didn't showed up...

 

[Rai80]

My old 1TB USB2.0 drive is faster (writing) then the new USB3.0 one.
The CPU load is slightly lower... how is that possible? Is this a bug?

I'm running the latest merlin build 380.63_2 for the ac68u.

Just for comparision I tried to connect my Sandisk USB3 Extreme 64GB thumb drive. Seams like it is not working at all. It didn't showed up...

Did you try fdisk /dev/sda (command line)? Then press P(show partitions). Are there any partitions?

 

[pesche]

Did you try fdisk /dev/sda (command line)? Then press P(show partitions). Are there any partitions?

The output is:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1               1      121601   976758815+  f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5               1      121601   976758784  83 Linux

I used mkfs.ext2 to format the drive yesterday. But I was quite sure there where no other partition yesterday..
Initially I used MiniPartition Wizard (on Win8.1) to create an ext3 partition..

Should I delete all partitions and just create one primary ext2/3/4 partition?

 

[pesche]

But I was quite sure there where no other partition yesterday..

Damn. I mixed up the drives.
sda is the old USB2 drive. I attached the USB3 drive additionally today.

The ouput for the new drive is:

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 976746240 sectors, 3725G
Logical sector size: 4096
Disk identifier (GUID): e3c244c0-1e47-44d8-8861-9810a2532b7b
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 976746234

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1             256       976735743       3725G   0700  Basic data partition

I was right. Just one partition..

 

[Rai80]

Damn. I mixed up the drives.
sda is the old USB2 drive. I attached the USB3 drive additionally today.

The ouput for the new drive is:

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 976746240 sectors, 3725G
Logical sector size: 4096
Disk identifier (GUID): e3c244c0-1e47-44d8-8861-9810a2532b7b
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 976746234

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1             256       976735743       3725G   0700  Basic data partition

I was right. Just one partition..

I should remove all partition. Then create a new linux partition with ext2 filesystem. Then it should show up.

 

[pesche]

I should remove all partition. Then create a new linux partition with ext2 filesystem. Then it should show up.

I removed the partitions.
I used 'o' (fdisk) to create a new empty DOS partition table.
I created a new primary partition. Assigned the complete size of the drive.
I formated with mkfs.ext4.

Disk mounts. BUT I can't create shareable folders in the UI.
The radio buttons are missing. I just see a dotted line.

According to a thread I found here at the forum. Merlin mentioned that it is a bug. What is a 'valid' partition table?
Mine looks right now like this:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 4000.7 GB, 4000752599040 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60562 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16128 * 4096 = 66060288 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1               1       60562  3906975492  83 Linux

I didn't had this issues with the "Mini Partition Wizard" partitioned drive...
Very strange!

 

[Rai80]

I removed the partitions.
I used 'o' (fdisk) to create a new empty DOS partition table.
I created a new primary partition. Assigned the complete size of the drive.
I formated with mkfs.ext4.

Disk mounts. BUT I can't create shareable folders in the UI.
The radio buttons are missing. I just see a dotted line.

According to a thread I found here at the forum. Merlin mentioned that it is a bug. What is a 'valid' partition table?
Mine looks right now like this:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 4000.7 GB, 4000752599040 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60562 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16128 * 4096 = 66060288 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1               1       60562  3906975492  83 Linux

I didn't had this issues with the "Mini Partition Wizard" partitioned drive...
Very strange!

You should NOT use 'o', but n (create new partition). Type should be linux. For usb thumb drives better choose ext2. (Less overhead)

After formatting, maybe need te re-plug the drive to show up

 

[pesche]

You should NOT use 'o', but n (create new partition). Type should be linux. For usb thumb drives better choose ext2. (Less overhead)

After formatting, maybe need te re-plug the drive to show up

'o' just deletes the partition table by overwriting it with an empty one. Or did I missed something?

It is a hard drive not a thumb drive. It is a 4TB drive.
What should be used? MBR or GPT?
What partition type? primary? extended?

The drive shows up. But I can't create folder within the Web UI to share them as FTP or SMB shares. I can create folders on command line and they show up. But I can't set the permissions nor delete them from the WEB UI.

 

[Rai80]

O creates a DOS partition table:

Command (m for help): m
Command Action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

So delete the current partition with d. Then create a new partition with n. Type linux(83). Then use ext2/ext3 or ext4. Whatever you like.

 

[john9527]

The drive shows up. But I can't create folder within the Web UI to share them as FTP or SMB shares. I can create folders on command line and they show up. But I can't set the permissions nor delete them from the WEB UI.

I've seen this happen when the drive is connected via a USB hub. If you are using a hub, try direct pluging the drive.

 

[pesche]

I've seen this happen when the drive is connected via a USB hub. If you are using a hub, try direct pluging the drive.

No hub. USB 3.0 drive connected to USB3 port.
USB 2.0 drive connected to USB2 port.

I can't delete the existing partition on the drive. I just can' be deleted. Any ideas?
I suspect fdisk is not working correctly with 4TB drives (GPT).

 

[pesche]

No hub. USB 3.0 drive connected to USB3 port.
USB 2.0 drive connected to USB2 port.

I can't delete the existing partition on the drive. I just can' be deleted. Any ideas?
I suspect fdisk is not working correctly with 4TB drives (GPT).

Alright. I just used 'o'
Seams like it is the only way to clear the partition table.
Now I will try an extended partition with one logic one inside.

Let's hope the best...

 

[Rai80]

fdisk only supports max 2TB. You can try Parted (partitioning tool)

 

[pesche]

That explains some of the problems and why it worked with MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Too bad fdisk doesn't give any hint on that limitation or any error messages.

To format a 4TB drive with ext3/4 takes forever. I really hope it will become better with an extended partition, like with my old 1TB drive.
But to be honest. I already lost most of my confidence that it will work decently...
Seams like the AC68u and USB3 is a bad idea..