Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

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nasnoob
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Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by nasnoob »

I keep seeing fluctuating transfer speeds when transferring large files 4gb+ from my TS-453B 8G NAS ( 4 x 4TB WD RED Harddrives in RAID10) to my SSD on my Windows 10 PC. Attached is a screenshot of the transfer graph for a single large file.

I have a Gigabit network and is fully wired with Cat6 cable. I have tested all the cables to make sure they arent damaged.

I've posted the settings I currently have below:

Router Settings:
NAT Acceleration On
Jumbo Frames Disabled

NAS Settings:
MTU: 1500
Max SMB Version 2.1

PC Network Adapter Settings Attached in Screenshots from TCP Optimizer
Jumbo Frames Disabled
Broadband Speed is 150Mbps

I thought maybe its do with the WD RED cache, but ive never had these transfer issues on my previous NAS (253 Pro) with the same hardrives.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions here and recommendations on any of the settings I have posted.

Thank you for you time!
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Toxic17
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Toxic17 »

So do you have Antivirus? I would guess your Windows OS AV is scanning ahead of the actual writing of data to the hard disk. turn it off and do a test again. see if it is that.
NAT Acceleration On
Broadband Speed is 150Mbps
is your PC not on the same LAN as you nas? are you downloading this data over the internet? not sure what you think NAT or broadband speed has to do with copy files directly to your PC over LAN.
Regards Simon

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NAS: TS-673A QuTS hero h5.1.2.2534 • TS-121 4.3.3.2420 • APC Back-UPS ES 700G
Network: VM Hub3: 500/50 • UniFi UDM Pro: 3.2.9 • UniFi Network Controller: 8.0.28
USW-Aggregation: 6.6.61 • US-16-150W: 6.6.61 • 2x USW Mini Flex 2.0.0 • UniFi AC Pro 6.6.62 • UniFi U6-LR 6.6.62
UniFi Protect: 2.11.21/8TB Skyhawk AI • 3x G3 Instants: 4.69.55 • UniFi G3 Flex: 4.69.55 • UniFi G5 Flex: 4.69.55
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Toxic17
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Toxic17 »

next this is lets do some diagnostics in SSH on the nas.

SSH to your NAS.

then type in the following commands, cut and paste the results into a post (use the BBcode quotes/code) to make them readable in a post.

Code: Select all

qcli_storage -d

Code: Select all

qcli_storage -T force=1

Code: Select all

qcli_storage -t force=1
Also what spec of PC do you have? CPU, RAM and and HDDs?
Regards Simon

Qnap Downloads
MyQNap.Org Repository
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When you ask a question, please include the following


NAS: TS-673A QuTS hero h5.1.2.2534 • TS-121 4.3.3.2420 • APC Back-UPS ES 700G
Network: VM Hub3: 500/50 • UniFi UDM Pro: 3.2.9 • UniFi Network Controller: 8.0.28
USW-Aggregation: 6.6.61 • US-16-150W: 6.6.61 • 2x USW Mini Flex 2.0.0 • UniFi AC Pro 6.6.62 • UniFi U6-LR 6.6.62
UniFi Protect: 2.11.21/8TB Skyhawk AI • 3x G3 Instants: 4.69.55 • UniFi G3 Flex: 4.69.55 • UniFi G5 Flex: 4.69.55
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Trexx
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Trexx »

Also depending on your QNAP config, you can get some ext4 caching on the QNAP itself. Could also be an issue potentially on the router.

Try doing the same test with PC direct connected to the QNAP (bypassing router) using static IP on PC. Also try turning off NIC offloading as that caused some perf issues in certain builds/drivers.
Paul

Model: TS-877-1600 FW: 4.5.3.x
QTS (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x 1TB WD Blue m.2's
Data (HDD): [RAID-5] 6 x 3TB HGST DeskStar
VMs (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x1TB SK Hynix Gold
Ext. (HDD): TR-004 [Raid-5] 4 x 4TB HGST Ultastor
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB DDR4-2666
UPS: CP AVR1350

Model:TVS-673 32GB & TS-228a Offline[/color]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018 Plex NAS Compatibility Guide | QNAP Plex FAQ | Moogle's QNAP Faq
nasnoob
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by nasnoob »

My PC Spec is as follows:
Windows 10 Pro
CPU: i7 920 Clocked at 3.4ghz
RAM: 6GB
SSD: Crucial M4 256GB

Thank you both for your suggestions, here is what I have tried:

1. Disabled Antivirus, Firewall, Windows Defender - NO CHANGE, same issue as before i.e. after 30 seconds into the transfer at 112mb/s the rate then drops to almost 0 and hovers at around 30mb/s until finishing
2. Disabled NIC Offloading - NO CHANGE, same as above

@Toxic17 - Apologies for any confusion, I just listed all the advanced parameter options on my LAN config screen. I have a standard LAN setup and the NAS and PC are both connected directly to the router. Here is the log from the performance tests you suggested:

# qcli_storage -d

Code: Select all

Enclosure  Port  Sys_Name     Type      Size      Alias          Signature   Partitions  Model
NAS_HOST   1     /dev/sdc     HDD:data  3.64 TB   --             QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
NAS_HOST   2     /dev/sdd     HDD:data  3.64 TB   --             QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0
NAS_HOST   3     /dev/sda     HDD:data  3.64 TB   --             QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
NAS_HOST   4     /dev/sdb     HDD:data  3.64 TB   --             QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0
# qcli_storage -T force=1

Code: Select all

[~]
fio test command for physical disk: /sbin/fio --filename=test_device --direct=1 --rw=read --bs=1M --runtime=15 --name=test-read --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=32 &>/tmp/qcli_storage.log
fio test command for RAID: /sbin/fio --filename=test_device --direct=0 --rw=read --bs=1M --runtime=15 --name=test-read --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=32 &>/tmp/qcli_storage.log
Start testing!
Performance test is finished 100.000%...
Enclosure  Port  Sys_Name      Throughput    RAID        RAID_Type    RAID_Throughput   Pool
NAS_HOST   1     /dev/sdc      141.06 MB/s   /dev/md1    RAID 10      237.10 MB/s       288
NAS_HOST   2     /dev/sdd      124.58 MB/s   /dev/md1    RAID 10      237.10 MB/s       288
NAS_HOST   3     /dev/sda      138.57 MB/s   /dev/md1    RAID 10      237.10 MB/s       288
NAS_HOST   4     /dev/sdb      119.95 MB/s   /dev/md1    RAID 10      237.10 MB/s       288
# qcli_storage -t force=1

Code: Select all

[~]
fio test command for LV layer: /sbin/fio --filename=test_device --direct=0 --rw=read --bs=1M --runtime=15 --name=test-read --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=32 &>/tmp/qcli_storage.log
fio test command for File system: /sbin/fio --filename=test_device/qcli_storage --direct=0 --rw=read --bs=1M --runtime=15 --name=test-read --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=32 --size=128m &>/tmp/qcli_storage.log
Start testing!
Performance test is finished 100.000%...
VolID   VolName             Pool     Mapping_Name            Throughput      Mount_Path                    FS_Throughput
1       Main                288      /dev/mapper/cachedev1   295.56 MB/s     /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA         193.35 MB/s
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Trexx
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Trexx »

I would suggest trying direct connection between the PC & NAS to rule out any router impact.
Paul

Model: TS-877-1600 FW: 4.5.3.x
QTS (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x 1TB WD Blue m.2's
Data (HDD): [RAID-5] 6 x 3TB HGST DeskStar
VMs (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x1TB SK Hynix Gold
Ext. (HDD): TR-004 [Raid-5] 4 x 4TB HGST Ultastor
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB DDR4-2666
UPS: CP AVR1350

Model:TVS-673 32GB & TS-228a Offline[/color]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018 Plex NAS Compatibility Guide | QNAP Plex FAQ | Moogle's QNAP Faq
nasnoob
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by nasnoob »

Thanks Trexx, I tried connecting directly to my pc and again same issue. At my wits end with this now :( Any other ideas?
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Trexx
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Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Trexx »

Do you have snapshots enabled? If you have all data backed up, you could try running raid-5 to see if see similar behavior.

Also try using smb3 to see if that makes any difference.

I would also try using something like Aja for testing. https://www.aja.com/products/aja-system-test

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Paul

Model: TS-877-1600 FW: 4.5.3.x
QTS (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x 1TB WD Blue m.2's
Data (HDD): [RAID-5] 6 x 3TB HGST DeskStar
VMs (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x1TB SK Hynix Gold
Ext. (HDD): TR-004 [Raid-5] 4 x 4TB HGST Ultastor
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB DDR4-2666
UPS: CP AVR1350

Model:TVS-673 32GB & TS-228a Offline[/color]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018 Plex NAS Compatibility Guide | QNAP Plex FAQ | Moogle's QNAP Faq
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Toxic17
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Toxic17 »

do you have the same issue copying from your PC to the NAS?
Regards Simon

Qnap Downloads
MyQNap.Org Repository
Submit a ticket • QNAP Helpdesk
QNAP Tutorials, User Manuals, FAQs, Downloads, Wiki
When you ask a question, please include the following


NAS: TS-673A QuTS hero h5.1.2.2534 • TS-121 4.3.3.2420 • APC Back-UPS ES 700G
Network: VM Hub3: 500/50 • UniFi UDM Pro: 3.2.9 • UniFi Network Controller: 8.0.28
USW-Aggregation: 6.6.61 • US-16-150W: 6.6.61 • 2x USW Mini Flex 2.0.0 • UniFi AC Pro 6.6.62 • UniFi U6-LR 6.6.62
UniFi Protect: 2.11.21/8TB Skyhawk AI • 3x G3 Instants: 4.69.55 • UniFi G3 Flex: 4.69.55 • UniFi G5 Flex: 4.69.55
nasnoob
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 4:31 pm

Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by nasnoob »

Performance is more stable when directly connecting PC to NAS.

I enabled Jumbo Frames and set MTU to 9k on PC and NAS, this seemed to up the throughput and make the transfer more stable.

Writing back to the NAS I get 118mb/s and copying from NAS to PC I get 105mb/s, not sure why theres a difference but its better than it was
Bob Zelin
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Re: Wildly Fluctuating Transfer Speeds

Post by Bob Zelin »

yea - I am guessing at some point, you have thousands of tiny files, which are very different than copying large blocks of 500 Gig files. When you have 60,000 500 KB files, that takes a lot longer than a few files that are 30 GB. Tiny files are exactly what caching is all about. I deal with video editing systems, and when I have people that have huge transfers of large video clips, it goes quickly. But if you have animation sequences of
tiny files with thousands or tens of thousands of individual frames which are tiny, yea - this takes a long time. It's dramatically slower than simply copying a single 30 gig file.

Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin / Rescue 1, Inc.
http://www.bobzelin.com
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