Some process taking too much of CPU capacity

[melimou]

Hi, we've been using TS-459 Pro+ as a central storage server for an average number of 120 clients to send data over FTP connection, on random times of day for about 5 years. The data goes to a specific folder according to the date. Now there have been some problems recently about the process of connection between some clients and NAS. As you can see in the attached figure, the process NGFS:idle and guest are taking too much of the processor capacity and this is causing traffic, practically preventing the other clients to connect and send data. My good guess is that different clients try to connect to NAS and find the right directory to store the data in the NGFS:idle process and when the current client is unable to do so, another client takes it place and so on, and the guest client is the client that has just sent a connection request through a handshake and is not identified by NAS on the network yet. We've been trying to figure out what causes this heavy load on CPU through these processes but no luck yet. I'd appreciate any advice or similar issues around the subject.
Thanks in advance!

[Spider99]

HI

what firmware and build date?

[OneCD]

what firmware and build date?

Yes, that screenshot looks like old firmware...

[melimou]

HI

what firmware and build date?

Hi,
The firmware version is 3.5.1 Build 1002T and it's built in 2010.
We are doing the same thing in another 30 areas with the same NAS and approximately the same number of clients, most of which are doing just fine, only about 40 percent of the devices are having this issue. We've been testing everything that comes to the mind. We updated the firmware of one NAS to 4.2.3 Build 20170121 version (2017/01/21), the problem still stands. Then we replaced the NAS at another district with a Pentium PC with almost the same configuration as of the NAS, temporarily to see if anything changes, and the PC worked just fine!
These particular processes are causing so much traffic that it's even impossible to remotely access the NAS content through an FTP connection or it just takes too long to establish the connection, so we're also almost blind to our data stored in those NASs.
Now I'm just wondering if the issue is because of connection problems in some parts of the network, or could be some issues with the packets and FTP protocol standards or even OS compatibility which I doubt is the case (we use windows on our clients. With the NAS's OS being Linux, could there be possible conflicts? I mean protocols should be platform independent as far as I know), I'm just at a loss! Or could it be because this particular NAS is simply not strong enough to handle this kind of operation? If so, I don’t know why they're working just fine in other parts of the network. Is there any way to see the details of those heavy processes? Or finding out why they are using so much of the processor?
I also have another question which I'm not sure is related to this topic because I'm totally new to our organization infrastructure and the NAS itself. Is there any particular procedure through which NAS stores the data? I mean, is the process of finding some directory to write the data done on NAS or it is done by the client that's sending the data? I'm not sure if it is the case, but since our data has to be written on NAS in a certain fashion (in a folder named the date on which the data is produced), if data from a specific date has not being sent for some reason and is being sent after a few days, could I be possibly right to guess that the search process to find the right folder is taking up much processing?
Looking forward to your opinions. Thanks again.

[storageman]

Is that the original set of disks? It's doing well if so.
Run an extended SMART on the drives.
The 459 is not that fast but still if it worked before ok...
Can NGFS save data to the NAS quickly over SMB?

[melimou]

Is that the original set of disks? It's doing well if so.
Run an extended SMART on the drives.
The 459 is not that fast but still if it worked before ok...
Can NGFS save data to the NAS quickly over SMB?

Hi,
yes that is the original set of disks, and it is in good condition after running the test.
and yes it works fine over SMB. Now I'm fixating on the heavy processes, trying to figure out what they are. I still doubt that this is a NAS related problem.
Thanks a lot.

[melimou]

on another note, I have another question,
Is there any way to see the details of the processes on NAS and what they are doing through a remote connection or something?

[Spider99]

ssh into the nas with the admin account and run top