HP ProLiant.

[tfboy]

Terb, what mode is the SATA controller set to? IDE? RAID? AHCI?
I think you'll get the best performance using AHCI although the Windows drivers were a bit hit and miss (the AMD drivers anyway).
I've never used mine under Linux though, but maybe worth playing around with.

[Terbinator]

AHCI.

I just don't understand why the sudden performance drop off.

[watercooled]

Is some network link along the way stuck at 100Mb/s?

[Terbinator]

Is some network link along the way stuck at 100Mb/s?

Possibly, but i haven't changed anything that would do that.

I certainly can't see anything in the router UI that suggests limiting the link to 100Mb/s.

[Biscuit]

Thats with iSCSI... hmmm, how about CIFS/Samba?

[Terbinator]

Thats with iSCSI... hmmm, how about CIFS/Samba?

Just ran CDM with 7200.12 that comes with the box via a normal CIFS share and the results are the same.

[watercooled]

I'd be looking at CPU load on client/server and running a few local IO benchmarks to find the bottleneck as it appears to be a fairly solid wall you're hitting, hence why I suspected Ethernet link speed. I don't think iSCSI should have much overhead on the server side but I don't have much experience with it so someone else might be able to provide more insight into it.

Edit: Missed above two posts. If possible, check CPU load while running the tests.

[Terbinator]

The bottleneck must be between the server/router because Widnows is reporting a 1GbE link.

transferring to/from the N40L doesn't show the CPU spiking that much, and it doesn't even go above 40% during a transfer.

[shaithis]

One of my N40Ls is running 4 SSDs in RAID5 plus 2 HDDs in RAID1. When backups are happening the CPU can max.....but it is doing well over 300MB/s at that time via multipath iSCSI. Unless you are running some heavy workload on the box, I doubt your hitting a CPU limit.

If your hitting ~22MB/s, then it isn't a 100Mb network link issue.

I am wondering if it's a combination of things, including a partition alignment issue....possibly even a double alignment issue.

[watercooled]

If your hitting ~22MB/s, then it isn't a 100Mb network link issue.

CDM suggests speed is within 100Mbps.

[abaxas]

El sh*to gigabit switch?

[Terbinator]

I am wondering if it's a combination of things, including a partition alignment issue....possibly even a double alignment issue.

Maybe.

I've nuked and re-done the array a few times whilst messing about with the N40L. How can an alignment issue be rectified?

I'll be able to have a proper mess with it this weekend as Uni is over for the year then. I'll try some other OSs too to see if it's a FreeNAS issue.

[badass]

Maybe.

I've nuked and re-done the array a few times whilst messing about with the N40L. How can an alignment issue be rectified?

I'll be able to have a proper mess with it this weekend as Uni is over for the year then. I'll try some other OSs too to see if it's a FreeNAS issue.

I am being serious now, but have you switched the whole lot off an on again. Particularly any switches or routers between your initiator and target.
I've seen things like this with crappy unmanaged switches.

That said, FreeNAS has to be one of the lowest performing storage appliance OS's available today.

[Biscuit]

I am being serious now, but have you switched the whole lot off an on again. Particularly any switches or routers between your initiator and target.
I've seen things like this with crappy unmanaged switches.

That said, FreeNAS has to be one of the lowest performing storage appliance OS's available today.

I get much better speeds out of it than i did with... that other one i tried... openmediavault?
I havent had a great deal of experience with anything else non-professional though.
Now that permissions are sorted and plug ins have started to arrive im hugely satisfied with FreeNAS.

I know on samba there is a single tickbox in the options that if you tick it makes the world of difference, cant for the life of me remember what it was and im a long way from home at the moment

Another point that i cant see mentioned anywhere, FreeNAS do recommend that you have 1GB per TB of RAM for RAID-Z. I have the max of 8GB in mine and it made a huge difference. Kinda like the difference between actually working and not working at all. You dont need to have FB-DIMMS either, just bog standard ol corsair/crucial value stuff. I think i got the kingston low profile stuff to make sure it fit.

Maybe.

I've nuked and re-done the array a few times whilst messing about with the N40L. How can an alignment issue be rectified?

I'll be able to have a proper mess with it this weekend as Uni is over for the year then. I'll try some other OSs too to see if it's a FreeNAS issue.

I think you can correct alignment using the manufacturers tools.

[Terbinator]

Well, i had a good mess about over the weekend and found the bottleneck....

...it was the Ethernet cable being limited to 100Mb/s I seriously never remember messing about with the connection to the router though since setting up, so i'm still puzzled.

Anyhow, back up to 60MB/s transfers now.