Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Questions about using NAS on Mac OS.
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FelixM
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Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Post by FelixM »

Hello everyone,

I do own a QNAP TS-253Be in a RAID 1 configuration which I had connected so far via a 1Gb ethernet cable to my Windows 10 PC. With this setup I did achieve constant transfer speeds of around 110-115MB/s. However I recently purchased a Macbook Air M1 and thought this might be a good opportunity to get an upgrade on my NAS connection as well. Therefore I equipped the 253Be with a QM2-2S10G1TA card for 10Gbe and a OWC 10Gbe to Thunderbolt 3 adapter. I connected the NAS with Qfinder Pro to make sure the connection goes through the 10Gbe. However I do not get the speeds I was expecting. In the activity monitor on the NAS I can see that the transfer is actually going through the 10Gbe, but only with transfer speeds of around 115-140 MB/s. I know that with this Setup I certainly won’t max out the 10Gbe since the PCIe Slot in the 253Be is only 2x2. However this is not the performance gain that I was hoping for  I set the jumbo frame on the NAS and in MacOS to 9000 but this only slowed down the connection to around 80-90MB/s. So this brought up a few questions for this setup.

What are the maximum speeds I can expect and how do I have to establish the connection (especially on MacOS)?

Is a SSD Cache likely to provide any benefit in this setup? I’ve read now that this doesn’t improve the real world usage at all. I am planning to use the NAS to store photo and video files and edit directly on the NAS. So far I’ve used an external SSD directly connected to my PC. I bought the Q2M card since I saw a promotion for it and thought this might leave me with the option of adding SSD cache later on. However the fan is quite annoying over time and if there is no chance of getting a performance increase I might just return the card and opt for a fanless 10Gbe adapter.

Is the connection limited by HDD setup? I know that RAID 1 is slow. However would investing in a 4-Bay NAS in a RAID 5 or RAID 10 configuration give me substantially better performance? I do want redundancy, so RAID 0 isn’t an option.

I hope you guys can help me in this regard.
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Toxic17
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Re: Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Post by Toxic17 »

you could try a speed test of the disk themselves, perhaps.

ssh to the NAS and run the following commands. this should work on your NAS.

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qcli_storage -d

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qcli_storage -T force=1

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qcli_storage -t force=1
post the reports that come out of the NAS. this will show what your RAID1 and disk models are capable of.

the other thing is your NAS is not the most powerful to start editing images/content directly from the NAS if the files are very large. the PCI bus will affect throughput as well so really this NAS is just not upto spec for 10g usage or your work load. it would be better as
Regards Simon

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Re: Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Post by Toxic17 »

here is what I have on my TS-473 - the Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB disk have no partition so no test is run on them.

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[~] # qcli_storage -d
Enclosure  Port  Sys_Name          Type      Size      Alias             Signature   Partitions  Model
NAS_HOST   1     /dev/sdb          SSD:data  465.76 GB M.2 SSD 1         QNAP FLEX   5           Samsung SSD 860 EVO M.2 500GB
NAS_HOST   2     /dev/sda          SSD:data  465.76 GB M.2 SSD 2         QNAP FLEX   5           Samsung SSD 860 EVO M.2 500GB
NAS_HOST   3     /dev/sde          HDD:data  2.73 TB   Disk 1            QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0
NAS_HOST   4     /dev/sdf          HDD:data  2.73 TB   Disk 2            QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0
NAS_HOST   5     /dev/sdc          HDD:data  2.73 TB   Disk 3            QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0
NAS_HOST   6     /dev/sdd          HDD:data  2.73 TB   Disk 4            QNAP FLEX   5           WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0
NAS_HOST   P2-1  /dev/nvme0n1      SSD:free  232.89 GB PCIe 2 M.2 SSD 1  QNAP        5           Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB
NAS_HOST   P2-2  /dev/nvme1n1      SSD:free  232.89 GB PCIe 2 M.2 SSD 2  QNAP        5           Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB

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[~] # qcli_storage -T force=1
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/sdb          532.10 MB/s   /dev/md1    RAID 1       1.00 GB/s         288
NAS_HOST   2     /dev/sda          531.58 MB/s   /dev/md1    RAID 1       1.00 GB/s         288
NAS_HOST   3     /dev/sde          135.15 MB/s   /dev/md2    RAID 5       404.56 MB/s       1
NAS_HOST   4     /dev/sdf          133.64 MB/s   /dev/md2    RAID 5       404.56 MB/s       1
NAS_HOST   5     /dev/sdc          129.90 MB/s   /dev/md2    RAID 5       404.56 MB/s       1
NAS_HOST   6     /dev/sdd          138.99 MB/s   /dev/md2    RAID 5       404.56 MB/s       1
NAS_HOST   P2-1  /dev/nvme0n1      1.63 GB/s     --          --           --                --
NAS_HOST   P2-2  /dev/nvme1n1      1.63 GB/s     --          --           --                --

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[~] # qcli_storage -t force=1
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       DataVol1            288      /dev/mapper/cachedev1   1019.00 MB/s    /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA         984.00 MB/s
2       DataVol2            1        /dev/mapper/cachedev2   351.06 MB/s     /share/CACHEDEV2_DATA         337.73 MB/s
[~] #
Regards Simon

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FelixM
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Re: Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Post by FelixM »

Thank you for the quick reply, here is what I got:

[~] # qcli_storage -d
Enclosure Port Sys_Name Type Size Alias Signature Partitions Model
NAS_HOST 1 /dev/sda HDD:data 3.64 TB -- QNAP FLEX 5 WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
NAS_HOST 2 /dev/sdb HDD:data 3.64 TB -- QNAP FLEX 5 WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0


[~] # qcli_storage -T force=1
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/sda 179.23 MB/s /dev/md1 RAID 1 241.20 MB/s 1
NAS_HOST 2 /dev/sdb 184.37 MB/s /dev/md1 RAID 1 241.20 MB/s

[~] # qcli_storage -t force=1
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 DataVol1 1 /dev/mapper/ce_cachedev1234.65 MB/s /share/CE_CACHEDEV1_DATA 198.45 MB/s
2 DataVol2 1 /dev/mapper/cachedev2 177.24 MB/s /share/CACHEDEV2_DATA 202.85 MB/s
3 DataVol3 1 /dev/mapper/cachedev3 236.89 MB/s /share/CACHEDEV3_DATA 176.31 MB/s


DataVol 1 is a thick volume, while DataVol2 and 3 are thin volumes.
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Re: Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Post by Bob Zelin »

Hi Felix -
I do not know what your application is. Perhaps it's Plex server. Perhaps it's accounting software.
I do nothing but professional video editing systems, and many people that ask about 10G on a QNAP that have Apple computers are doing video editing. So I will just make this assumption for now. I apologize if I am wrong, in make the
wrong assumption.
You are NEVER EVER EVER EVER going to do professional video editing with Adobe Premiere, FCP X, Davinci Resolve or AVID Media Composer on a QNAP TS-253Be. I don't care who you spoke to, or what you read. This is wrong information.
You can "get by" as a single user with a TVS-472XT, TS-453BT3 or new TS-h686. And you SHOULD be thinking about a TVS-672XT or TS-h886 6 bay (and yes, you get all the drives - and all the QuTS "h" models I mentioned require an additional
QNAP QXG-10G1T which is about $107 - this is a 10G card). And if you say "but those are really expensive, and I cannot afford those models " - then you need to SAVE YOUR MONEY, work hard and eventually you will be able to get a professional
QNAP for professional video editing, which will serve you very well. In the mean time, if you need to work, you can get a nice direct attached storage product for your Apple M1 computer from OWC, G-Tech, Promise, or Lacie, which will
work perfectly fine. This will allow you to do your editing, make money, save money, and then purchase the correct QNAP.

Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin / Rescue 1, Inc.
http://www.bobzelin.com
FelixM
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Re: Best Settings for 10Gbe on MacOS

Post by FelixM »

Hey Bob,

thanks for the reply. I am not aiming at professional video editing with RAW footage etc., just for YouTube etc. For what I heard the BT3 would be enough for a single user (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFFlHwnYjeg&t=406s). Could you explain why the TS-453BT3 would be any faster than a 453Be? Using a 4-Bay NAS will surely improve performance since I can use RAID 5, but I don't really see the difference between the 453BT3 and the Be. They use the same processor, both have a PCIe 2x2 slot for 10Gbe and as far as I understood the Thunderbolt 3 connection on the BT3 is just for convenience as the connection is still going through a PCIe 2x2 bottleneck. QNAP is even advertising the connection speeds over 10Gbe to be faster than over TB3. Is there something that I am not seeing?
Of course the TVS-472XT would be much faster, however I think that's a bit too much.

Another question: Is SSD-Caching any useful for this purpose?


Update on the connection speed: It seems that Norton blocked the connection. After uninstalling I could achieve Read-speeds of around 600MB/s. The Write-speeds however are still limited to 125MB/s
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