WHS Performance

[mtber]

Hi,

Just built a WHS system and I’m looking for some feedback on performance. Some IOZone testing results are attached.

The IOZone command was: iozone -Rab Test2.wks -i 0 -i 1 -+u -f s:\test\test.tmp -r 64k -n 64k -g 1g -z

My network and systems are outlined below.

How do these performance metrics look? About what I should expect, or are there opportunities for improvement?

The primary uses for the WHS system are to store Photoshop Elements 7 files and catalogs for shared use between the four PCs, store iTunes files and catalogs, and for backups.

All NICs in the systems at their default settings.

Thanks for any input.

John

Network

Cable modem to
Linksys WRT150N to
D-Link DGS-2208 10/100/1000Mbps 8-Port Desktop Green Ethernet Switch to
PCs below​

WHS

AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive​

Dorene - XP

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 Processor
Foxconn FV-N84SM2DT GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
GIGABYTE GA-M68SM-S2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Transcend JETRAM 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model JM2GDDR2-8K​

Kelsey – Vista 64

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E OC GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
OCZ SLI-Ready 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Seagate Barracuda 7200160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive​

Eric – Vista Home

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" WHS
nVidia GPS 250​

John – XP Media Center

Dell Inspiron 9300
2.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium M
2 GB RAM
100 MB 7200 RPM HD​

 

[thiggins]

Sorry, but the thumbnails are too small to read.

 

[mtber]

Sorry about that.

I've replaced the figures with PDF files, hopefully they will be legible.

Thanks,

John

 

[thiggins]

Thanks. Write results are dominated by write cache effects, which is responsible for all results > 125 MB/s. You really need to set the iozone -g switch to a value higher than the amount of memory in the NAS under test. Since you have 2 GB in the WHS machine, you need to set it to at least 4G.

The read speeds from the more powerful systems are reasonable @ 60 - 70 MB/s or so.
To get higher than that, you'll probably need to put a RAID 0 array of two SATA drives on each client and use Vista SP1 or better (or Win 7).

 

[mtber]

Thanks Tom.

The read feedback is reassuring. I'll have to get to some time to repeat the writes at the higher size.

From a general principles standpoint, would there be significant/worthwhile benefit in bumping up the WHS RAM from 2 gb to 4GB? I can pick-up another 2GB for $33, just wondering if it will/should make any difference.

Thanks,

John

 

[00Roush]

My guess is that adding more memory will not really change your speeds at all. It really depends on how large of files you are transferring and how much data you are moving in and out of the server at a given time. More memory should allow a busy server to keep more data cached and allow maximum disk throughput. So if you are transferring large files from\to multiple clients it could improve speeds a bit.

For reference a while back I upgraded my server from 1GB of RAM to 2GB of RAM and overall I have not seen any faster transfer speeds than before. Transfer speeds are still on average 80-100 MB/sec for large files. I have noticed that remote desktop works faster though.

00Roush

 

[mtber]

Thanks 00Rousch, I'll stick with my 2 GB Ram for now.


I've done some real world file copy tests and am very disappointed relative to the IOZone results. (haven't had a chance to run it at up to 2GB size yet).

It looks like I am getting real world transfer speeds of 8-25 MB/s unless I copy from disck to disk (Kelsey to eSata) on the same system where I get ~80 MB/s.

Results from some tests copying a 1 GB folder with 351 files (ranging from small up to ~ 40 MB, with most arounf 6-8mb) are below.



From To Sec MB/Sec Networking CPU

John Kelsey 113 8.8 15-20% 30-45%

John WHS 132 7.6 15-20% 30-45%

Kelsey eSATA 12 83.3

Kelsey WHS 47 21.3 ~35%

WHS Kelsey 38 26.3

WHS Dorene 75 13.3 ~12% 5-10%



It doesn't look like the newtwork or CPU usuage is saturated and I get good speeds when going disk to disk on a single system, so doesn't that indicate that it isn't disk speed limited?

I've also posted screen captures of a much larger transfer from the WHS to the eSata drive on the Kelsey Vista 64 system where the sustained rate was ~6 MB/S.

Am I expecting too much or is something seriosuly out of whack?

(sorry about the small attachement size, I don't understand why they display so small after uploading)

Thanks,

John

 

[benogil]

You might try some of the tips from here -
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/topic/7316-whs-vista-gigabit-slow-transfers/

Ben

 

[wathman]

Your network should be capable of higher transfer speeds, one question I have right off is what hard drive do you have installed in Kelsey? did a little searching, and the only 160 GB SATA II hard drives from Seagate I could find are the 7200.7 and 7200.9. Both of these have pretty bad performance in comparison to the newer drives you have installed in the other systems.

That would only partly explain the poor performance for Kelsey, but your other systems are having slower speeds as well so it may be that your WHS system's processor isn't keeping up with the load, it is only a low power sempron running WHS as an OS.

Do you have any data from resource usage during transfers from the WHS side?

The rest of the WHS build looks very solid so I'm not too concerned there. I'm also assuming you took care of the basics like ensuring all your cables are cat 5e or above.. if your network is anything like mine was, I cobbled it together over the years using accumulated extra ethernet cables, only just recently switched out everything to at least cat 5e.

 

[mtber]

The Seagate 160 in the Kelsey PC is older and probably not optimal (I pirated the two 500 GB drives now in the WHS from her system which I had been using as the "home server"). As you note, I don't think that is the overall problem though.

I connected to the WHS via Remote Desktop and copied the same test files from the WHS to the John system, 8.9 MB/s. The CPU usage on the WHS's Sempron was ~50%. Are there other parameters that would be useful to monitor?

I also did a copy test between John and Dorene, and had similar results, 8.5 MB/sec.

This is all making me think it is a network issue. I have Cat 6 running between all of the PCs and the D-Link DGS-2208 switch.

John


From To Sec MB/Sec Networking CPU

John Kelsey 113 8.8 15-20% 30-45%

John WHS 132 7.6 15-20% 30-45%

Kelsey eSATA 12 83.3

Kelsey WHS 47 21.3 ~35%

WHS Kelsey 38 26.3

WHS Dorene 75 13.3 ~12% 5-10%

WHS (RDC) John 8.9 ~50% Semperon usage
John Dorene 8.5

 

[mtber]

I also did an xcopy from John to WHS and the speed was similar to my File Explorer copies, 8.8 MB/S.

I looked through the link referenced above and didn't see anything that jumped out at me as being the same as what I'm seeing. I think most of teh problem reported there were slow transfer one way or under one set of conditions, were my set-up seems to be slow all around.

John

 

[wathman]

Have you tried any file transfers between your client machines, as in from Kelsey to John? If that transfers at a better rate, you'll know your infrastructure and switch are fine, and can focus on the WHS hardware and configuration.

Also, I'm just trying to think of stuff that might have been overlooked. Do you have all the latest service packs on your windows machines?

Something else to look at would be the event logs in your WHS Admin tools control panel. Maybe you'll find some clues as to what's causing the slowdowns there.

 

[Jay_S]

SNB has this how-to for checking your network infrastructure: Measuring Network Performance - Jperf. Jperf is a very handy tool. This will at least confirm that your cabling, switch, etc., is performing to spec.

 

[mtber]

Any transfers invloving an XP machine (desktop or WHS) is very slow. Vista (32) to Vista (64) transfers are significantly better

UPS just delivered a cross-over Cat 6 cable from NewEgg. I get a 13 MB/s cross over transfer between Kelsey (Vista 64) to John (XP), compared to 8.8 MB/s through my normal network set-up.

All of my transfer tests are summarized below (n-1 for each). I've also re-attached my original IOZone test results. (I'll try to check out JPErf when I get a chance).

I'm up to date on all service packs.

Do the totality of these results indicate that there are confirguration issues between the various machines and not a fundamental network issue? (IOZone results & poor cross over cable transfer speeds)

Thanks,

John

All transfer tests 351 files totaling 1 GB

Eric (Vista 32) to John (XP) 16.9 MB/S
Eric (Vista 32) to John (XP) 27.0 MB/S
John (XP) to Kelsey (Vista 64) 8.8 MB/S
John (XP) to WHS 7.6 MB/S
John (XP) to Dorene (XP) 8.5 MB/S
John (XP) to Eric (Vista 32) 7.6 MB/S
John (XP) to Kelsey 9Vista 64) - cross over 13.0 MB/S
John Xcopy to WHS 8.8 MB/S
Kelsey (Vista 64) to Kelsey (Vista 64) eSATA Drive 83.3 MB/S
Kelsey (Vista 64) to WHS 21.3 MB/S
Kelsey (Vista 64) to Eric (Vista 32) 37.0 MB/S
WHS to Dorene (XP) 13.3 MB/S
WHS to Kelsey (Vista 64) 26.3 MB/S
WHS (RDC) to John 8.9 MB/S

 

[Jay_S]

Kelsey (Vista 64) to Eric (Vista 32) 37.0 MB/S

This is with your crossover - yes? I didn't see Vista->Vista charts in your earlier posts, but it looks like these 2 PC's are your quickest.

1) Do you see Vista->Vista speeds of 37 MB/s through your network? Or just with the x-over cable?
2) What are the model#'s or P/N's of the HDD's in these PC's?

Read Tim's "How to Build a Really Fast NAS" series - especially Part 6: "The Vista Difference". You'll note a few things over the series:

1) XP's file copy engine sucks.
2) XP's SMB implementation sucks.
3) The mechanical, non-cache, speed of our HDD's is more limiting than we think.

Jperf (or iperf) will tell you how fast your network CAN be. Your drives, OS, protocols and applications will take it down from there.

 

[mtber]

The cross over was John (XP) to Kelsey (Vista 64) at 13.0 MB/S, compared to the same machines through the network at 8.8 MB/s.

Now all of these numbers are n's of 1, so the absolute values might change a bit if I was averaging three or more runs, but the ternds seem clear.

The only "decent" transfer I get is between Eric (Vista 32) and Kelsey (Vista 64), which are also my higest performing hardware.

Am I off base to expect better than <13 MB/s transfers between my XP machines and my WHS or low 20's from my Vista machines? In none of my testing have I seen anywhere near maxed out Network bandwidth or CPU load.

My systems are:

WHS

AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive​

Dorene - XP

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 Processor
Foxconn FV-N84SM2DT GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
GIGABYTE GA-M68SM-S2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Transcend JETRAM 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model JM2GDDR2-8K​

Kelsey – Vista 64 Home

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E OC GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
OCZ SLI-Ready 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Seagate Barracuda St3160812AS 7200160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive​

Eric – Vista 32 Home

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" WHS
nVidia GPS 250​

John – XP Media Center

Dell Inspiron 9300
2.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium M
2 GB RAM
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ST910021A 100GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache HD​

 

[Jay_S]

Am I off base to expect better than <13 MB/s transfers between my XP machines and my WHS or low 20's from my Vista machines? In none of my testing have I seen anywhere near maxed out Network bandwidth or CPU load.
No, I'd expect 40's using XP as the client, and better using Vista/Win7.

Your WHS is plenty capable. The GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H's NIC is the Realtek 8111C, which is gigabit on the PCIe bus. So that's good. The 7200.12 in your server and the WD caviar blue in Eric are your fastest drives. The 7200.9 is slooow (I own one - 5-year warranty back then though!).

Part of the problem is the complexity of your project - you're trying to "solve" all these clients at once. Let's start with 2 and get them up to speed - I pick WHS and Eric (also has Realtek 8111C NIC).

Make sure both 8111C NICs have current drivers.

Re-cable them so they connect through your DGS-2208 switch. You *should not* ever need a crossover cable with gigabit ethernet (it auto negotiates regardless of cable type). Check windows NIC properties - connecting at 1000 Mb/s?

Don't worry about jumbos right now - in case you have them enabled in any of the NICs.

Can you run desktop applications on WHS? I'm thinking specifically of jperf (iperf with a Java GUI). We need to confirm that your NICs, cables, and switch are OK. With TCP window sizes of 64k you should see 900Mb/s. If not, something is wrong with a NIC, cable or your switch. Let's start here.

 

[mtber]

I should be able to get JPerf running on the WHS, will take me some time to get a chance to do it though.

All of my systems are running through the DGS-2208 switch with straight thorugh Cat 6. (I just used the cross-over to temporarily connect John & Eric for testing.)

Jumbos are disabled

All Nics say 1GB connections.

So, focusing on WHS & Eric, the current driver data is below.

I'm not sure why Sys Info reports a different NIC than the spec sheet (RTLE8023xp for WHS versus 8111C).

If I were to update drivers, would I use the ones from the following RealTek page?

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/do...d=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Version 6.227 for Eric (Vista 32) and 5.736 for the WHS?

WHS

NIC- Realtek 8111C
Sys Info reported -RTLE8023xp
Driver Date - 4/23/2009
Driver version - 5.724.423.2009​

Eric

NIC-Realtek 8111C
Sys Info reported-RTL8169
Driver Date - 5/4/2009
Driver version - 6.222.504.2009​

The full driver configuration for the WHS and Eric is:

WHS

NIC Realtek 8111C
Sys Info reported RTLE8023xp
Driver Date 4/23/2009
Driver version 5.724.423.2009

VLAn Tagging Disabled
Auto Disable PCIe Disabled
Auto Disable PHY Disabled
CheckSum Offload Rx & Tx Enabled
Flow Control enabled
Green Ethernet Disabled
Jumbo Frame Disabled
Large Send Offload enabled
Network Address not present
Shutdown Wake On lan enabled
Speed & Duplex auto negotiation
Wake on LAn Capabilities Pattern match and magic packet
WOL & Shutdown Link Speed 10 Mbps First​

Eric

NIC Realtek 8111C
Sys Info reported RTL8169
Driver Date 5/4/2009
Driver version 6.222.504.2009

Auto Disable Gigabit disabled
Interupt moderation enabled
Auto Disable PCIe disabled
Auto Disable PHY disabled
TCP Checksum offload (IPv4) Rx&Tx enabled
TCP Checksum offload (IPv6) Rx&Tx enabled
UDP Checksum offload (IPv4) Rx&Tx enabled
UDP Checksum offload (IPv6) Rx&Tx enabled
IPv4 checksum offload Rx&Tx enabled
Flow Control enabled
Green Ethernet disabled
Jumbo Frame Disabled
Large Send Offload (IPv4) enabled
Large Send Offload v2 (IPv4) disabled
Large Send Offload v2 (IPv6) enabled
Priority & Vlan enabled
Receive buffers 512
Receive side scaling enabled
Transmit buffers 128
Network Address not present
Shutdown Wake On lan disabled
Speed & Duplex auto
Wake on LAn Capabilities none
WOL & Shutdown Link Speed 10 Mbps First​

Thanks,

John

 

[Jay_S]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to use WinXP / Server 2003 Driver (5.736 as you noted) for WHS. More here: How to update Realtek NIC drivers during Bare Metal Restore. The MS forums are filled with people having issues with Reatek NICs on WHS.

You can find more via google - search this string (without quotes): "8111C +site:forum.wegotserved.com".

I'm not familiar with WHS. Can you log on locally? Like, using a KB/mouse & monitor attached to the WHS? Just asking because, if driver installations or re-installations kill your network connection, you'll have no other way to admin the WHS.

You can always throw money at the problem! A Intel PCIe NIC is only $30, and Intel NICs are supported by nearly everything.

 

[wathman]

Something else I came across while troubleshooting my desktop's I/O performance: I wasn't getting expected performance out of my drives so I tried some tweaks. Turns out that power management can unpredictably affect performance if drivers aren't optimal. See if changing your power scheme to Performance and see if that changes your results any.