High CPU and memory utilisation

User avatar
Symform
Starting out
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:28 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by Symform »

Hello Pplatteel,

I understand that you are wanting to know how to verify the version running on your QNAP device. When you log into your Symform account on our website, and review the Device Properties, then you can view the Software Version.

We have not yet pushed out version 3.0, however; it is expected very soon. And there are improvements to the CPU and memory usage of Mono in that release.

Thank you,
Symform Support Team

Symform, inc.
User avatar
Symform
Starting out
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:28 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by Symform »

The easiest way to check the Symform version is via your Symform portal on http://control.symform.com. After you log in, click your device name and look at the upper right hand corner for the software version details.
Symform Support Team

Symform, inc.
NMTgimp
Starting out
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:20 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by NMTgimp »

I tried Sysform for a week or so, gave up when I saw that very little of my pictures library had actually been backed up the their p2p cloud, disabled it and uninstalled the software. HOWEVER..... mono is still consuming 99.9% of my CPU and stacks of my ram, even though I have removed (but not rebooted yet) the software from my device.

DO NOT INSTALL THIS SOFTWARE UNTIL THEIR TEST THEIR SOFTWARE PROPERLY,

I thought it was only microsoft that alpha tested their software on the general public these days.

Oh and as I cannot seem to kill the process, will it be removed after a restart ???? I damn well hope so !

Yours dissappointed

NMTgimp
User avatar
Symform
Starting out
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:28 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by Symform »

Hello,

I am happy to announce that we have released our new version of the Symform software to your QNAP devices. As long as they are still connected to our service, they should have received the update within the last 24 hours. If you are no longer running our service, you will need to re-install it, or re-enable it to get the update.

We have made several bug fixes, including performance enhancement to the mono processes, and how much CPU it uses.

I would encourage those that were concerned about the CPU usage of mono on their QNAP devices to try Symform again.

Thank you,
Symform Support Team

Symform, inc.
dude67
First post
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2012 4:44 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by dude67 »

I am unhappy to announce that the problem still exsists.

Just over 20,000 files totaling around 150gb. after 24 hours of completely unacceptable cpu use(80%+ at most times) and more than 300mb ram usage. a grand total of just over 2100 files were uploaded.

Bandwidth is not an issue as this is a dedicated server in a major data centre on a 1gb port.

I realise that this test is not really designed for high speed connections but here it is anyway.

Image


At any rate, I have uninstalled this pile 'o crapola.
spellinn
Starting out
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:20 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by spellinn »

I decided to re-try the Symform v3 agent and although the memory usage appears to be slightly reduced (40MB down from 70MB), there's still relatively high cpu usage:
nas_cpu.png
The memory usage is still by far the largest of all the processes, with the next-largest consuming only a few MB.
nas_processes.png
One thing that puzzles me is why there is so much disc activity. All my files are fully synchronised to the cloud, so the only activity should be a scheduled scan to check on any changes (which there are none).

Even when contributing space (which I've suspended for my tests), I would expect that once my device has been "chosen" to store someone's files (or portion of) then once it's been written, it's there until it's needed for a restore, or removed by Symform. Both are infrequent activities and shouldn't require constant disc activity.

Why the constant disc thrashing on what's essentially static data?

Regards

Neil
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
Symform
Starting out
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:28 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by Symform »

Hi Dude67, Spellin,
Thanks for the feedback regarding the CPU and memory usage. If you could provide the model of QNAP you were using with Symform, that will help us repro and fix these issues. We appreciate you taking the time to share your findings and making our software run leaner on these QNAP boxes.

Spellin,
To answer your question about the disk thrashing, Symform contribution is IO intensive. In addition to storing fragments, we move fragments to other endpoints to rebalance the storage network as we add more contribution devices. Contribution devices also perform maintenance functions from time to time, helping regenerate lost fragments in the network. Our first option is to go back to the source and regenerate fragments from the source and redistribute them. But if the source file is offline or unavailable, we will designate one of the contribution devices holding a fragment to reassemble the block, create the additional fragments needed to replace the lost ones, and redistribute them to random contribution devices.
Symform Support Team

Symform, inc.
spellinn
Starting out
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:20 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by spellinn »

Symform wrote:Hi Dude67, Spellin,
If you could provide the model of QNAP you were using with Symform, that will help us repro and fix these issues. We appreciate you taking the time to share your findings and making our software run leaner on these QNAP boxes.
Mine is a TS-410. Please DM me for my Symform userid.
Symform wrote: To answer your question about the disk thrashing, Symform contribution is IO intensive.
Maybe so, but even when not contributing, there's alot of disc IO taking place.

Given most "home users" will have filled their NAS boxes with the cheapest HD's available (i.e. desktop class, not enterprise class as used in servers and enterprise NAS/SAN devices) I'm worried that one would be shortening the overall MTBF of my NAS and increasing power consumption as the discs now never go into standby.

Regards

Neil
dstaite007
New here
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:22 pm

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by dstaite007 »

I have enabled symform on my TS-110 (3.5.2 Build1126) for the past ~4 weeks. And have had a mostly negative experiences with the service.

Like others I have noticed a lot more disc activity after pledging 150GB. I wanted to use the sync space as another level of backup for important family pictures etc.

However after 3 weeks I'm still only 2730 of 13170 or 10.3GB complete with 5Mbps upstream broadband that seems awfully slow?

Incidentally the contributed storage was 26.64 GB

I have disabled the service and deleted the contents in my qnaps symform share.

Hopefully future releases will improve the service.

Regards
Dan
rock_it
New here
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 1:31 pm

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by rock_it »

I'd like to voice my support for Symorm, on the basis that it sounds like a very green idea.

A few points I think are significant:
1) CPU and mem utilisation is high, but I would venture to say that this is becausee of weaknesses in the mono framework. Aka java, my business uses a java application that does VERY little, but uses a heeluva lot of resources!
2) Most users complaining seem to be Marvel users. I do not know marvel cpu's, but I doubt that Symform processing requirements should exceed its capabilitys. Again, I blame bad code and bad framework. Symform would need to pull out some C code I think. Processors are so powerful these days. It drives me nuts that some applications manage to be slow on machines capable of 1000+ mips. I mean, we used to get by fine with our pentium two's at 400 mhz.
2a) Cant more processing be done at the central brain?
3) Constant disk usage: I doubt home users are going to ever be happy with this. Perhaps Symform could add the option to install a USB key that could hold the most frequent accessed information? I presume Symform has some kind of local hash table? Obviouly most QNAPS only have limited mem available for disk cache, so if all Symforms look ups could be done in flash...
(You can send the check to my PayPal account, symform! :)
4) Someone on these threads made a very significant point: QNAPs are 99% available! What use is a bunch of laptop/desktop users that always shutdown/sleep their machines?!
PC users are paying less, whilst QNAP owner with MORE available space are paying more??
QNAP owners should DEFINETLEY be up for a discount.

Keep at it symform, great idea.
GirthW
New here
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 4:33 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by GirthW »

too much thrashing and memory load. music and video streaming constantly re-buffering with symform running.

nice idea, poor execution. un-installed.

i hope there is an announcement in the future saying they rushed it out, but now have the qnap software in a good place and its worthwhile trying again.

my advice prior to such an announcement however, is don't install.
Kingturkish
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:15 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by Kingturkish »

I thought I'd have a go with this seeing as they offer 20Gb free, however, I gotta agree with everyone else, it runs my Qnap 212 at 100% CPU usage. Not good, so uninstalled.

Here's hope they manage to fix this issue with a future release.
User avatar
melgaard
New here
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:50 pm

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by melgaard »

I have used Symform for some time now, and while it has been intensive on the disks and cpu, I didn't experience any grave problems... Well until now...

Symformcontrip seems to hog up as much memory as it possibly can until there is no more left, that means that media streaming isn't fluent, simple MP3's cuts out...
Just regular file access becomes very slow.

So had to disable that for now, unfortunetly that is 208GB's of data taken of the network which has to be "recovered" to other nodes now...
And with allot of other NAS users doing the same... this sounds like a house of cards falling together...
QNAP TVS-1282 - i5
4 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666
4 x 4TB Seagate IronWolf (ST4000VN008) - RAID10
2 x 1TB Intel 660p M.2 Nvme SSD - RAID0 - Read Cache
2 x 512GB Intel 545s SATA SSD's - RAID0
User avatar
doktornotor
Ask me anything
Posts: 7472
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:44 am

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by doktornotor »

Given the fact that this thing is written using Mono/.Net, it is rather amusing to see people surprised by the excessive resources usage. :lol:
I'm gone from this forum till QNAP stop wasting volunteers' time. Get help from QNAP helpdesk instead.
Warning: offensive signature and materials damaging QNAP reputation follow:
QNAP's FW security issues
QNAP's hardware compatibility list madness
QNAP's new logo competition
Dear QNAP, kindly fire your clueless incompetent forum "admin" And while at it, don't forget the webmaster!
User avatar
melgaard
New here
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:50 pm

Re: High CPU and memory utilisation

Post by melgaard »

I take that you have little to no clue about .NET/Mono as is then...

I have been part of developing .NET applications that process Gigabytes of message data, yet never consumes much more than the initial 20MB's-40MB's footprint which is just a memory reserve...
(It doesn't mean that the application actually uses that much memory)...

Besides they actually found a memory leak: https://control.symform.com/forums/topic.php?id=600
QNAP TVS-1282 - i5
4 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666
4 x 4TB Seagate IronWolf (ST4000VN008) - RAID10
2 x 1TB Intel 660p M.2 Nvme SSD - RAID0 - Read Cache
2 x 512GB Intel 545s SATA SSD's - RAID0
Post Reply

Return to “Symform”