Poor performance after moving server.

[Tank]

I recently setup FreeNAS 9.3 with latest updates on a 5U server with 4 - 3TB WD Red drives. Also setup a samba share. Everything was working fine until the power strip was suddenly turned off and since it was off I decided to move the server to a new location in the house. After booting back up it has been extremely slow ever since. It's connected to a Linksys router which is basically just a client on my main Linksys router. To make sure it wasn't a problem with the wireless routing I plugged my laptop in to the same exact line and did a speed test - everything is good, but FreeNAS is very sluggish - even the web interface is slow at times. I'm new to FreeNAS and therefore don't know what to look for. The web UI says the volume is healthy. I've tried looking at permissions issues but still have problems even with guest access enabled. What could be the issue?

 

[zambanini]

without hw specs and more information about your setup,(pool config, network part..) nobody can help you‎

 

[jgreco]

The forum rules, conveniently linked in red at the top of every page, provide an outline of the information you're expected to provide in order to help us help you better.

I will note that the next obvious step is to provide some iperf testing numbers to see if there's a problem with the networking.

 

[depasseg]

Have you moved it back to the original location to see if the performance is normal? Did it cleanly shutdown the first time, or was the power strip turned off? Perhaps a hard shutdown caused some problems, not the move.

 

[jgreco]

Moving the server back is a spectacularly bad idea. One of the enemies of hard disk drives is any sort of bumping or jostling motion. It is a very bad idea to move a server without having a very good reason.

 

[gpsguy]

Was it connected to the 2nd Linksys router when it was in the old spot? What's the model number of the router? Perhaps it's only 10/100. You may want to replace it with a gigabit Ethernet switch.


Sent from my phone

 

[jgreco]

Guys, let's hold off on further random guesswork until we get a better description of the system, as I have already requested.

 

[Tank]

Thanks for all the help. This is my first post to the freeNAS forum so I appreciate everyone's help in getting me up to speed on the forum rules.

Okay. After more testing I've been able to solve most of the issue, but before I get to that here is the basic info that I should have provided before. My debug file is also attached.

Intel Server
8GB RAM
Dual Xeon 1.6 Ghz
Four, 3TB WD RED drives in raidz2 with a Windows (CIFS) share configured

I'm using a Linksys e2000 flashed with DD-WRT as the "client" router that communicates with my main router which is a Linksys e4200 v2 smart router with the latest Linksys firmware.

I use this server as an all around NAS, but mostly for movies, photos, etc. I run plex server on another Windows computer and serve movies from this big NAS.

Before I moved the server the surge protector it was plugged in to was suddenly shut off by an accidental flip of the power button, which caused the server to do a hard power-off. I moved the server to a new location in the basement and the speed was very sluggish afterward. I ran basic SMART tests on the drives and they all passed (luckily), but did not run more in depth tests. However, the drives seem fine. I ran iperf to see what I would get. Here are the results:
http://pastebin.com/UQbqHmzp
(I started streaming a movie and that's when the drop happened).

I decided to move the client router to a new location in the basement that is closer to the main router and ran iperf again. Here are the results (again, streaming a movie shortly after beginning the test):
http://pastebin.com/bYumsXSh

As you can see, the second results were much better and the server started behaving closer to normal. I did notice that movies I encoded in mp4 take much longer to begin streaming while movies encoded in mkv stream way faster.

I'm going to be moving the server again once I re-model a room located directly beneath the main router. Hopefully that will provide good results with the speed between routers.

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

[zambanini]

do I assume correctly, that you connect your routers with wifi?

 

[cyberjock]

You have to be using wifi. To be honest, nobody will help you troubleshoot wifi problems. Wifi speeds suck. They will always suck and your NAS has nothing to do with that.

 

[jgreco]

Both sets of iperf results clearly indicate network issues. You're getting results measured in Kbits/sec with tons of fluctuation. Wireless sucks. Wired performance ought to give you at least 900 Mbits/sec - a hundredfold increase in performance given the numbers you posted.

When you're doing your remodeling, take a little time to see if you can get a cable run between upstairs and the remodeled room. Putting a jack in the wall in each room isn't real difficult. Using wireless as a primary networking technology is usually a disaster.

 

[Tank]

Agreed. I'll see if I can get a wire run down there.