N5200 as USB2.0-HDD on Windows PC

[PraO]

Since I had many troubles integrating the N5200 in our windows-network (random 8.3 filenames, many error-logs on our wins-server when enabling ADS in WS2003 environment, no NetBeui-Protokoll) the 2nd try was connecting it as big USB-HDD to a Windows Server 2003. For any reason I wasn't able to get a "normal" transfer-rate. Copying a small 200MB file everything goes well, needs a few seconds. Once I try a bigger file - for example 2GB after the first about 500MB the transfer-rate has a total breakdown to about 5 MB/s. Has anyone an idea what can be done to get the same speed as using network (about 26 MB/s) or more ?

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Sir,

The USB space & SAMBA also included in the same RAID volume, thus if possible please check the RAID staus, or others access to the RAID in the same time, expically the period of the first 500MB.

Yvon.

[PraO]

Dear Yvon,

since I'm natural german speaking, your english is a little bit to advanced for me. I recognise all the words, and think you meant status and not staus, but nethertheless I don't know, what I should monitor. Especially the term "to please the raid status" is not familliar to me.
That should be no criticism - I thank you very much for answering me so fast - and hopefully we solve the problem at the same speed, since I have tried everything I could think of in the last weeks.
I tried it with the RAID settings JOB, RAID1 and RAID5 - all with the same results. Also I tried Seagate 250GB and WD 500GB HDDs. I tried small and big stipe sizes - all the same.
Can it be, that the first "fast" 500MB of transfered data go into the memory-cache and when the real writing to the hdds starts, the transfer-rate drops?
At the moment I'm the only one using the N5200, because after our ADS-problems I switched the others back to the old storage-system.

Oliver

[Thecus - Yvon]

Daer Oliver,

Sorry for typing error, the sentence sshould be:
The USB space & SAMBA also included in the same RAID volume, thus if possible please check the RAID staus, or others access to the RAID in the same time, expically the period of the first 500MB.

About the first USB 500MB issue, we would arrange a environment to verify this symptom, as the AD issue please mail to support@thecus.com woudl would provide some suggestion for join AD.

Yvon.

[PraO]

Dear Yvone,

I made some additional tests in the "500MB case". I'm almost shure, the high speed at the beginning comes from moving data to the N5200-memory-cache, because when I copy additional 300MB files while the first is in progress, these get copied slow (4,6 MB/s).
Also when I copy only one 300MB file an look at the N5200 after the windows pc said copying is ready the harddisk(s) are quite busy for a while. Messuring the time until the disk of the N5200 has finished writing I get also the slow performance.

In my first post I mentioned, that 8.3-filenames have no typical behaviour on the N5200 - can this be changed?
(ex. long: "File_for_project" -> short: "File_f~1" or "File_for")

Also I asked about NetBeui. Can this protocol be installed or activated on the N5200?

Thanks,
Oliver

[PraO]

Dear Yvone,

could you please tell me until when your colleagues will have made the test to verify this problem and rework the firmware to eliminate it.

Please answer me as soon as possible. If the problem cannot be solved it wont make me happy, but at least I want to know it.
Also I'm looking forward to beeing answered to my additional questions in my last post.

Thanks,
Oliver

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Oliver,

Here we try on the V2.00.01 and didn't found this issue yet, thus if possible would you specificity your operation method and detail, as like the first post " was connecting it as big USB-HDD" deos it is via Target USB to copy files, RAID mode, HDD type and via what ways to copt the files, thus we would duplicate a similary environment to found the root cause out more easily and quicky, because if 1 user get this issue, which means other user would get the same issue too.

Yvon.

[PraO]

Dear Yvone,

my specifications:
N5200B V1.00723460
5 x 500GB (WD5000AAKS) as RAID5
Firmware V2.00.01 (shipped with V1.10)
connected as USB-Client to a Windows PC with USB2.0 port
(I tried 2 different PCs WS2000 and WS2003 with same result.)

The RAID is formated with 64k stipe-size and 99% Target USB (1836GB). Then after restartig the N5200, Windows finds a USB2.0 disk drive. This is initialized and formated via Windows Disk-Management as NTFS Volume (64k alocation unit size).

Working with this configuration I get about 5MB/s throughput.
After I got the system I first tried the typical NAS-usage via GigaBit-Connection. Here I had about 26MB/s. But since Windows-like behavior of the short-filenames is essetial to me I tried the second way. It would fit perfectly to my needs, when the speed-problem is solved:
- Windows-like short filenames
- shares with domain-permissions
(- NetBeui-Protocol )

The way I copy the files doesn't change the result. I tried copying directly from/to the PC the N5200 is connected to via USB2.0. Also when I create a windows-share and copy the files via GigaBit-network the results are the same.

Example:
- my PC is named "PCGhost"
- after NTFS-formating, the drive-letter T: (for Thecus ) is assigned
- then a windows-share "Ghost4$" is created
- on my workplace-PC I map the share \\pcghost\ghost4$ to the dive-letter Y:
- then I copy/fetch files

As mentioned in earlier posts I also tried different stripe- and cluster-sizes. Also I tried JBOD, RAID0, RAID1 - all the same result.

Hopefully,
Oliver

[PraO]

Dear Yvone,

could you please tell me your test-status.

Could you rebuild the issue? Have you got all the information needed?

Thanks,
Oliver

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Sir,

Thanks for your waiting, after the testing we didn't found the similary USB yet, thus if possible please provide an IP address to support@thecus.com for us chekcing from remotely.

Following three ways to publish the NAS on the internet for your reference:

1.
Public Fixed IP (most easy)
Just assign a public fixed IP on the NAS WAN/LAN1 port

2.
DMZ (easy)
Enable Router DMZ function and fill in NAS WAN/LAN1 private IP in the Router DMZ column, and then tell me the Router WAN IP.
For Example:
Router WAN IP is 139.175.55.244
NAS WAN/LAN1 IP is 192.168.1.100
Enable Router DMZ function and fill in 192.168.1.100 for DMZ, thus the Router will forward all connection of 139.175.55.244 from internet to NAS WAN/LAN1 IP 192.168.1.100, than I could access to the NAS.

3.
Virtual Server (port forward) (a little difficult)
Assign port 21/22/80 and 443 forward to NAS private IP, following case study about port 443 for your reference: Thecus About Storage.

Yvon.

[PraO]

Since the issue couldn't be closed, because I got no more answers on my mails, I post the actual status:
After I prepared the connection for Thecus, they changed something on my system on the next day. After this change the speed increased, but not as much as I hoped it would:
The write speed kept low at about 10MByte/s writing a 2GByte file.
The read speed increased to about 26MByte/s writing a 2GByte file.

Copying the same file via network, I got 26MByte/s in both directions. So I think USB-write speed could maybe be optimized to the same value - don't know - got now answers (tried it thrice).


for Yvone:
Are the changes you made on my system part of the new firmware 2.00.04? Was there any further progress?


Thanks,
Oliver

[fajo]

... with 2.00.04 the device driver for the USB controller is now being loaded with DMA enabled ... this may increase speed a bit.

/Falk

[PraO]

Today I updated to firmware 2.04. The speed is the same than before (FW2.01 with Thecus-patch) - so fajo was right.

BUT, write-speed keeps slow at about 12MB/s.

When a 2048MB file is copied to the NAS via USB the progress bar in the beginning keeps moving very fast and the time estimation is 55 seconds. After 25% progress everything slows down and the estimation goes up to 2 minutes.
When a 1024MB file is copied this situation ocours at about 50% progress. A 350MB file seems to be written with 34MB/s.
Since the NAS has a system memory of 512MB it looks like transfer to memory-cache via USB is very fast, but writing from memory-cache to hdds is much slower. When I calculate with the time needed until the hdd-leds stop flashing, I get about 10MB/s no matter how big the files are.

The funny thing is if I copy via TCP/IP (and not via USB) the write speed is about 26MB/s, but I need USB and NTFS in my case because of funy 8.3 names with EXT3.

best regards,
Oliver Pranz