Backup transfer speed tweaks please?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Northwinds

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
30
Hi all
Amongst other things I am saving for new parts to get my Freenas 8.3.1 32bit setup upgraded to 9.? 64bit, but for now, needs must....
....anyway I am trying to implement a backup for my other machine (xp 32bit) using a software called Genie Timeline.
The only problem is it's incredibly slow!
I may not have enough RAM or the right NIC but for now is there anything I can tweak to make the process go a bit quicker.
Basically I have just mapped a CIFS share in windows and am letting the backup program do its thing.
Any ideas/tweaks please?
Many thanks!
 

Northwinds

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
30
Nobody?
Just wondered if there is a guide for optimising these things anywhere?
Anyone?
 

gpsguy

Active Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2012
Messages
4,472
Let's start with the forum rules, especially rule #3, items #2 & 3. Are you using ZFS or UFS?

Are you using wired or wireless networking. Do you have end to end gigabit ethernet?

What's "incredibly slow" mean? Have you done any peformance testing? If so, please share those results.

What if I said "my vehicle is slow" and all I told you was that it had four tires. You wouldn't know whether I'm talking about a tractor, truck, etc., nor what my benchmark was. While I had my truck up to near 80mph today, it's slow compared to a Maserati.
 

Northwinds

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
30
Ok thanks
I'm using UFS as I'm on 32bit v8.3.2 until I can afford to upgrade.
Unfortunately I don't have gigabit ethernet (yet) but everything is wired.

What I mean by slow is that I have been using a backup software (Genie Timeline) to backup my Win XP system and it is literally taking days!
Funnily enough, I have just backed up 250GB (a lot less than the XP backup) from an external USB drive via my OSX system to the same CIFS share in just 5 hours, which to me seems kind of strange. given that the xp backup is to a mapped folder on the same share via the same network???

Also how would I go about peformance testing as you mention?
I have read a couple of posts re network speeds that seem to decrie some of the GUI graphs - is there a better way?

Many thanks for any input.

PS just read the forum rule re posting ipconfig results
- is this input via the GUI shell?
 

gpsguy

Active Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2012
Messages
4,472
One can't use your backup scenarios to benchmark performance on your NAS. There are too many variables, for example the hardware in each of the client machines, what the backup software does behind the scenes, etc. Based on your last message, one might also conclude that there's nothing wrong with FreeNAS, but perhaps the issue is with the XP machine.

There are a number ways to do performance testing.

You might want to use the iperf utility (see section 11.1 of the manual). Run it on both your XP machine and your Mac, and compare the results. You can search the forum for examples - here's one I just ran.

iperf -s [FreeNAS server]

iperf -c 192.168.1.10 -P 1 -i 1 -t 50 [XP workstation]

You might also try copying a large file, say 4Gb, from each of the computers to your server and track the time needed to copy the file.

You still haven't provided any hardware information, regarding your server. Since you're comparing the performance between your Mac and pc, it would be helpful to know more about the hardware that you have in both of these computers.

ps. yes, you'd run ifconfig from the shell.
 

Northwinds

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
30
Thanks for the help on this - still trying to figure out the iperf commands - will post any results when I work it out.....
Afraid I'm being a bit dim on this....
Ran iperf -sD from the shell and got
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
Running Iperf Server as a daemon
The Iperf daemon process ID : 33165


Started Filezilla from my xp machine and logged in with an ftp account to transfer a 2G video file across (which seemed to go very quick at 12MB/s or better), so meanwhile
I opened the iperf client on the xp machine, selected client and input my FreeNAS server address then Run iPerf but unlike
Figure 11.1a: Viewing Bandwidth Statistics Using xjperf
in the manual I get nothing in the bandwidth graph....
:-(
Probably doing something daft here, will try on the mac also and see if I get anything....

OK - firewall!!!! - DOH!!!!!

well here are the results for another 4G video file over ftp from the xp machine:

bin/iperf.exe -c 192.168.1.117 -P 1 -i 1 -p 5001 -f k -t 10 -T 1
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.117, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[1848] local 192.168.1.102 port 4435 connected with 192.168.1.117 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[1848] 0.0- 1.0 sec 2536 KBytes 20775 Kbits/sec
[1848] 1.0- 2.0 sec 3192 KBytes 26149 Kbits/sec
[1848] 2.0- 3.0 sec 2304 KBytes 18874 Kbits/sec
[1848] 3.0- 4.0 sec 2280 KBytes 18678 Kbits/sec
[1848] 4.0- 5.0 sec 3608 KBytes 29557 Kbits/sec
[1848] 5.0- 6.0 sec 2536 KBytes 20775 Kbits/sec
[1848] 6.0- 7.0 sec 2640 KBytes 21627 Kbits/sec
[1848] 7.0- 8.0 sec 2256 KBytes 18481 Kbits/sec
[1848] 8.0- 9.0 sec 3816 KBytes 31261 Kbits/sec
[1848] 9.0-10.0 sec 2352 KBytes 19268 Kbits/sec
Done.

Does that seem reasonable?
 

Northwinds

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
30
ok same with ftp on osx:

iperf -c 192.168.1.117 -P 1 -i 1 -p 5001 -f k -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.117, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 129 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 4] local 192.168.1.116 port 55014 connected with 192.168.1.117 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0- 1.0 sec 6784 KBytes 55575 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 1.0- 2.0 sec 6400 KBytes 52429 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 2.0- 3.0 sec 7040 KBytes 57672 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 3.0- 4.0 sec 6400 KBytes 52429 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 4.0- 5.0 sec 7040 KBytes 57672 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 5.0- 6.0 sec 6656 KBytes 54526 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 6.0- 7.0 sec 6784 KBytes 55575 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 7.0- 8.0 sec 7168 KBytes 58720 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 8.0- 9.0 sec 6784 KBytes 55575 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 9.0-10.0 sec 5888 KBytes 48234 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 10.0-11.0 sec 6912 KBytes 56623 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 11.0-12.0 sec 6400 KBytes 52429 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 12.0-13.0 sec 6272 KBytes 51380 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 13.0-14.0 sec 6912 KBytes 56623 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 14.0-15.0 sec 6784 KBytes 55575 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 15.0-16.0 sec 6784 KBytes 55575 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 16.0-17.0 sec 7680 KBytes 62915 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 17.0-18.0 sec 7424 KBytes 60817 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 18.0-19.0 sec 6656 KBytes 54526 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 19.0-20.0 sec 7040 KBytes 57672 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 0.0-20.0 sec 135936 KBytes 55629 Kbits/sec
Done.

Is this ok?

for comparison here is transferring the same file to my FreeNAS but just dragging via finder:

iperf -c 192.168.1.117 -P 1 -i 1 -p 5001 -f k -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.117, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 129 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 4] local 192.168.1.116 port 55081 connected with 192.168.1.117 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0- 1.0 sec 8832 KBytes 72352 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 1.0- 2.0 sec 7680 KBytes 62915 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 2.0- 3.0 sec 8448 KBytes 69206 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 3.0- 4.0 sec 8448 KBytes 69206 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 4.0- 5.0 sec 9088 KBytes 74449 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 5.0- 6.0 sec 9856 KBytes 80740 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 6.0- 7.0 sec 6400 KBytes 52429 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 7.0- 8.0 sec 3328 KBytes 27263 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 8.0- 9.0 sec 7680 KBytes 62915 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 9.0-10.0 sec 6400 KBytes 52429 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 10.0-11.0 sec 7168 KBytes 58720 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 11.0-12.0 sec 7296 KBytes 59769 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 12.0-13.0 sec 7552 KBytes 61866 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 13.0-14.0 sec 7424 KBytes 60817 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 14.0-15.0 sec 7680 KBytes 62915 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 15.0-16.0 sec 6784 KBytes 55575 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 16.0-17.0 sec 7552 KBytes 61866 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 17.0-18.0 sec 7168 KBytes 58720 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 18.0-19.0 sec 6656 KBytes 54526 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 19.0-20.0 sec 7424 KBytes 60817 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 0.0-20.0 sec 148992 KBytes 61018 Kbits/sec
Done.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top