CrashPlan Restore is Extremely Slow

[nello]

I'm trying to restore a 3.5TB CrashPlan backup from FreeNAS to my iMac over a (wired) gigabit ethernet connection and it is running very slowly:

• Restored only ~130GB in 24 hours
• CrashPlan reports throughput of less than 30Mbps.

At this rate it will take 10 more days to finish this restore.

Is there anyway I can figure out why it's running so slowly? Better yet, is there anyway to speed it up?

Thank you.

- nello

 

[pirateghost]

Based on your motherboard choice, I looked it up and found what NIC it has in it. Surprise! It's a RealCrap, er Tek
LAN Chipset: Realtek 8111F

You probably can't really do anything about it from that perspective.

Are they lots of small files? Is your crashplan plugin running out of memory?

 

[nello]

… your … NIC … LAN Chipset [is] Realtek 8111F

Are you implying that installing a NIC card would improve my throughput? Apparently, RealTek NIC performance is a (known) problem when CPU load is high, as it is in my case:

Realteks will perform poorly under CPU load as interfaces with these chipsets do not provide their own processors. (Source: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html#network-interfaces)​

If so, are there any particular ones that you recommend? And, sorry to be such a NOOB, but how do I configure my server to use the NIC on the card, not the one on the motherboard? In the BIOS?

Are they lots of small files?

Yes, but it seems just as slow on large (video) files.

Is your crashplan plugin running out of memory

How do can I find this out?

 

[pirateghost]

Are you implying that installing a NIC card would improve my throughput?

I assume you have not read the hardware recommendation thread?

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

how do I configure my server to use the NIC on the card, not the one on the motherboard? In the BIOS?

plug in new NIC.
in BIOS disable onboard.
boot machine.
set new NIC to proper IP address

How do can I find this out?

There are parameters you can add to your crashplan configuration in your jail. I do not have a link on hand.

 

[nello]

I assume you have not read the hardware recommendation thread?

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

No, I haven't. I chose my hardware in 12/2012; the link is dated 2014. Thanks for the reference; I'm reading it now.

plug in new NIC.
in BIOS disable onboard.
boot machine.
set new NIC to proper IP address

You mean within FreeNAS, right?
Network > Interface (select one and) > Edit

There are parameters you can add to your crashplan configuration in your jail. I do not have a link on hand.

I looked at the Jail and I don't see any configuration options along the lines of memory size. I'll have to research this further.


Thank you.

- nello

 

[pirateghost]

You mean within FreeNAS, right?
Network > Interface (select one and) > Edit

If your current setup uses a STATIC IP, and your NIC changes, how do you expect to get to that GUI? I would do it from the console on first boot after installing new NIC

I looked at the Jail and I don't see any configuration options along the lines of memory size. I'll have to research this further.

Not the JAIL settings, a setting WITHIN the crashplan configs INSIDE the jail.

 

[nello]

I assume you have not read the hardware recommendation thread?

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

I've now read the thread but didn't see anything about recommended NIC cards or even chipsets. (Yes, I saw that ASUS motherboards like I'm using are NOT recommended.)

So back to my original question, do you recommend and particular NIC card(s)?

Thank you.

- nello

 

[nello]

If your current setup uses a STATIC IP, and your NIC changes, how do you expect to get to that GUI? I would do it from the console on first boot after installing new NIC

Yes, you are correct; I didn't think that through. Thank you for your patience.

- nello

 

[pirateghost]

I've now read the thread but didn't see anything about recommended NIC cards or even chipsets. (Yes, I saw that ASUS motherboards like I'm using are NOT recommended.)

So back to my original question, do you recommend and particular NIC card(s)?

Thank you.

- nello

From that thread:

Motherboards with Intel NIC are supreme, especially with two of them. Realteks and many other brands are known to not work at all or work very intermittently with FreeBSD/FreeNAS so they aren't recommended. There's so many threads complaining about NICs I won't even try to link them. It should be easy for you to find at least 50 threads on this "problem area".

Suffice it to say, Intel NICs are the best. This subject has been beaten to death over the years, and there are threads all over discussing it. I would recommend reading through some network threads and seeing what is recommended.

 

[gpsguy]

Intel Pro/1000 CT. About $30 USD

 

[nello]

Intel Pro/1000 CT

I installed the card yesterday and my restore is running more than twice as fast: CrashPlan reports that it's running at up to 75Mbps.

The path between my iMac and FreeNAS is:

FreeNAS > Router's LAN Ports > iMac​

• Router: Asus RT-N16 flashed with TomatoUSB
• Cable: CAT5e

Does CrashPlan's throughput seem reasonable, or does it look like there is opportunity for improvement?

What statistics should I be looking at to judge the network performance?

Thank you.

- nello


Update 2016.01.21
Looks like FreeNAS is connecting to my router at only 100Mbps. I found lots of threads where others had the same problem and it invariably turned out to me a bad cable. I'll try swapping cables. In the meantime, here are NIC's settings: I misread the router's LAN ports; FreeNAS is connected at 1000Mbps:

Code:

em0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=42098<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWTSO>
ether 68:05:ca:3e:ac:f2
inet 10.10.49.10 netmask 0x80000000 broadcast 127.255.255.255
nd6 options=9<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED>
media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
status: active

 

[pirateghost]

I installed the card yesterday and my restore is running more than twice as fast.

CrashPlan reports that it's running at up to 75Mps.

Is that reasonable throughput for a Gigaethernet connection? Or should I be looking at other statistics to judge the network performance?

Thank you.

- nello

125MB/s is theoretical MAXIMUM without normal networking overhead. Typically with the right gear most people get 90-100 solid MB/s

 

[nello]

… 75Mps …

That was a typo … should have been 75Mbps. I've corrected my post.

 

[pirateghost]

That was a typo … should have been 75Mbps. I've corrected my post.

Mbps is megabits. That's low.
MB/s is megaBYTES

There is a huge difference there.