Samba speed limited with QoS enabled

[JMP]

Hi,
I have a RT-AC68U with Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.38_2 (had the same problem with 3.0.0.4.374.38_1). I found this issue and am not sure if it's a bug or if I have wrong expectations:

When QoS is enabled (Automatic mode) with 2 Mb/s Up and 32 Mb/s Down, the Samba upload rate (from a USB3 disk connected to the router) to a computer in the local network is only about 243 kB/s (which is ~2Mb/s). When QoS is disabled the speed is normal (~30 MB/s).

I's like QoS is limiting the max. speed in the local network, is that normal? I always thought QoS only affects the WAN/Internet connection or at least does not limit the speed in such way.
And strangely, FTP transfer is NOT slowed down like Samba!


For me it's fine to just disable QoS for the moment, but I thought I post it anyway, for the case it is a bug...
JMP

 

[RMerlin]

Known issue, but unsure as to why this is happening.

I wonder tho if it might be related to that other issue caused by Samba not binding to interfaces, since this QoS issue is also limited to ARM-based routers. Will be worth re-testing with the appropriate postconf script in place.

 

[myserver57]

Wireless ok, wired not?

Hi, I'm using 3.0.0.4.374.39 and I've got the samba patch to bind interfaces only. (default was bound to lo0 and br0). However, I've noticed that QOS is still limiting my speed through samba but ONLY on wired connections. Wireless on both channels is fine.

Interestingly, if I watch the traffic in the Traffic Monitor page, on the Internet tab although the "current" column doesn't change, the "average" column shows the speed of the transfer over the wired network. So for example, if you increase QOS uplink to a really high number, then copy from the USB3 samba share over the wired network, whatever speed the copy is will affect what's displayed in the average column on this tab.

So I think the QOS engine is incorrectly looking at samba traffic as internet traffic.

Unless I've missed a setting somewhere?

Thanks!

 

[myserver57]

Hi, just thought I'd do a little follow up (sorry if it makes me seem impatient).

Is anybody else having the same issue as me?

Thanks

 

[chtse53]

I am using .40 build alpha4. I saw limitation of transfer speed both wired and wireless when QoS is enabled. I thought it was related to the disabling of hardware acceleration when QoS was enabled. The limitation in my situation has no obvious relationship to the setting of upload speed.

 

[pesche]

Is anybody else having the same issue as me?

Thanks

Hi,

I do have the same problem.
AC68U .40 build alpha4 and QOS enabled.

Writing via Samba is fast. But reading from the same share is limited to my WAN upload speed.

Tried the sharing functionality for the very first time and was wondering. Especially because FTP access seams to be fine.


Any solutions around?

thx

 

[myserver57]

Hi,

I do have the same problem.
AC68U .40 build alpha4 and QOS enabled.

Writing via Samba is fast. But reading from the same share is limited to my WAN upload speed.

Tried the sharing functionality for the very first time and was wondering. Especially because FTP access seams to be fine.


Any solutions around?

thx

Is it also only on wired LAN, as in my case?

 

[chtse53]

On further testing, I can confirm your observations. The only difference is that the limitation occurred both in wired and wireless connections in my case. I varied the upload setting greatly and I can observe the transfer speed limitation correlated with the upload speed setting.

 

[myserver57]

On further testing, I can confirm your observations. The only difference is that the limitation occurred both in wired and wireless connections in my case. I varied the upload setting greatly and I can observe the transfer speed limitation correlated with the upload speed setting.

Merlin posted (see #2 above) that setting samba to bind only to the listed interfaces seemed to have solved the problem, but in my case wired is still limited.

If you check /etc/smb.conf, is "bind interfaces = yes" there? And if so, what interfaces are listed? Should only have "lo and br0".

However, that still doesn't let max traffic through wired lan connections in my case. Maybe this is one of those issues that could be fixed when the proper fix for the open samba port on WAN issue is also fixed. Seems like it thinks that traffic is for WAN and not LAN. Dunno, just musing...

 

[pesche]

Is it also only on wired LAN, as in my case?

Yes. LAN. I didn't tried it with WLAN connection.

 

[pesche]

In my case I could find the following configuration in /etc/smb.con

...
bind interfaces only = yes
interfaces = br0
...​

Is br0 enough? Is the loopback necessary?

So maybe the samba server doesn't bind to the interface, even though the configuration is correct?

thanks

Merlin posted (see #2 above) that setting samba to bind only to the listed interfaces seemed to have solved the problem, but in my case wired is still limited.

If you check /etc/smb.conf, is "bind interfaces = yes" there? And if so, what interfaces are listed? Should only have "lo and br0".

However, that still doesn't let max traffic through wired lan connections in my case. Maybe this is one of those issues that could be fixed when the proper fix for the open samba port on WAN issue is also fixed. Seems like it thinks that traffic is for WAN and not LAN. Dunno, just musing...

 

[pesche]

In the meantime I've disabled QOS entirely.
Samba write/read speed is now 50Mb/s.


I'm very new to the AC68U and I must admit that I'm a little bit frustrated with this Asus product.
Before I've bought it, I waited till Asus added the long promised DFS support, just to find out, that the router constantly crashes with the new firmware.
Now the problems with QOS.
My impression is, I've paid Asus just to contribute in testing their software.

 

[myserver57]

I can understand how you feel, but I think that feeling can come with any purchase these days. Most products release with issues that take time to correct over the course of being discovered once out in the public.

As disappointed as I am with this particular issue, I'm overall very happy with the product and even happier with Merlin's firmware, which is a big help.

I don't think I can afford to shut off QoS so I've left mine on for now.

Regarding needing loopback, I don't think it's necessary unless you want to access the drive over samba from the router itself. Maybe somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I tried with and without and it didn't make a difference anyway.

Haven't done enough research to check if samba is bound to the correct interfaces or not, but I know that if you don't bind them, then the samba port is open on WAN (445). If you bind, it's closed (but not stealth). I can't help but think these are related. If samba is looking to open up on the WAN side, that would explain why QoS thinks its wan traffic rather than internal only.

Does anybody know how to report a bug to Asus directly? Maybe through quicker channels than CS? Or I wonder if this bug is in newer firmware still... can't afford to take mine down to test (wifey factor)

Thanks!