SOLVED - Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over wifi - Only to freenas....

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SOLVED Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over
wifi - Only to freenas....
Discussion in 'New to FreeNAS?' started by Minty Trebor, Oct 27, 2015.

Minty Trebor, Oct 27, 2015

I have successfully built a very fast (well I think its fast!) 9.3 Freenas box, and I am
getting about 100 mb/sec (according to windows 10) sustained write speed to a 5 disk
zfs pool, over CIFS. As you can expect I am very happy with this. I also have a working
vbox jail, Logitech Media Server Jail, and Plex plugin/jail.
Offline
Minty Trebor But I have a very strange wifi transfer speed issue - Only to the Freenas server.
Member Since: Oct 26, (I understand that windows does not give accurate write speeds, but as a comparator
2015
Messages: Message 2
in this instance I think they are fine)
Count:
2 Using the same Windows 10 laptop as I used for the wired speed tests and the same
Likes Received: 0 test file; However I can only reach 20 mb/sec sustained write over wifi.
Trophy Points: 1
Location: UK
My wifi is using the AC protocol (5Ghz) and if I upload the same file to different
network share on a different machine (using basic windows network sharing) I see a
sustained transfer speed of around 40 mb/sec over wifi.

The network has been in place for a number of years, and the wifi has consistently
delivered around a 40 mb/sec transfer speed previously. I was running a Linux Mint
build (on the same H/W) with Native ZFS prior to converting it over to Freenas. With
the linux mint zfs pool, I used to get around 70 mb/sec wired, and 40 mb/sec
wireless.

The wireless data is not taking a different route to the server compared to the wired
data (all going through the same router and cables, except for the first hop over wifi of
course). I run 2 Nics, and I have tried direct writing to both IP's, instead of server
name, but this made no difference.

I have read the documentation around CIFS tuning and other posts spotted around the
forum about tuning NICS, but I fail to understand why this speed drop is only to the
Freenas box....

I'm probably missing something obvious, but any help or ideas would be

https://forums.freenas.org/...ex.php?threads/successful-new-build-but-i-have-a-50-speed-loss-over-wifi-only-to-freenas.38892/[1/14/2016 3:29:07 PM]

SOLVED - Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over wifi - Only to freenas.... | FreeNAS Community

appreciated....

Specs below...

Server:
Core i5
12GB Ram
Asus P7H57D-V EVO
2 Nics (1 onboard, 1 PCI-E)
5 disk ZFS volume/pool (2tb WD reds)
2 disk stripe volume/pool (60GB SSD's) - running jails only
Minty Trebor, Oct 27, 2015 #1

jgreco, Oct 27, 2015

That's completely normal for a board with a Realtek LAN. The little hamsters on the
wheels that push bits around inside a Realtek chipset sometimes get very tired, so you
may see various odd things related to them and performance. Perhaps one of your
hamsters is sick or deceased.
Offline
jgreco The simple fact is that Realtek chipsets are slanted towards extremely cheap desktop
Resident Grinch
connectivity for Windows PC's. As such, their ability to efficiently line up packet after
Member Since: May 29,
2011
packet and pump them out at full speed for billions of packets without issue is very
Messages: Messag 7,715 questionable. We recommend the Intel parts.
e
Count: jgreco, Oct 27, 2015 #2
7,715
Likes Received: 1,162
Trophy Points: 113
Location:
WHO(1)ville, Unixland

FlynnVT, Oct 27, 2015

If it is only a problem on wireless, try increasing the TCP window size to 256Kb. I
think the default is 64Kb (not autoscaling?) and found that it limited performance on
my setup - apparently due to the effective latency of the wireless chain.

Online Temporarily:
FlynnVT sysctl net.inet.tcp.recvspace=262144
Newbie
sysctl net.inet.tcp.sendspace=262144
Member Since: Aug 12,
2013
Messages: Message 36 ...or you can use the -w option on iperf for experimentation.
Count: To make it permanent you can add the variables and values via:
36
http://olddoc.freenas.org/index.php/Sysctls
Likes Received: 11
Trophy Points: 8
More information, somewhat related:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7085/the-2013-macbook-air-review-13inch/10

https://forums.freenas.org/...ex.php?threads/successful-new-build-but-i-have-a-50-speed-loss-over-wifi-only-to-freenas.38892/[1/14/2016 3:29:07 PM]

SOLVED - Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over wifi - Only to freenas.... | FreeNAS Community

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/0...-the-2013-macbook-airs-802-11ac-wi-fi-
speeds/
I've never looked into autoscaling and don't know what the default is on FreeNAS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP_window_scale_option#FreeBSD.2C_OpenBS
D.2C_NetBSD_and_Mac_OS_X
Also, make sure CIFS is configured to allow SMB3.
(http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_services.html#cifs, Table 11.3b). AFAIK there are
chattiness/efficiency improvements to the later protocol versions that handle this
latency better too.

I see 20Mb/sec a room away from the AP when the indicated MAC rate is about
~350mbps. This rises to over 40MB/sec with the laptop closer and an indicated
866mbps MAC rate.
FlynnVT, Oct 27, 2015 #3

Minty Trebor likes this.

Minty Trebor, Oct 27, 2015

Thank you both for your responses.

@FlynnVT - Awesome - that worked. I set both of those sysctl values, and set the
minimum SMB to SMB3, and I am now getting a sustained rate of around 35
mb/sec... Much closer to my previous speeds and definitely within tolerance... I'm sure
Offline I can find some more tweaks to tease out a few more mb/sec, and I will look into your
Minty Trebor links around auto-scaling.... Thank you so much. (as an added bonus it upped my
Member Since: Oct 26, wired transfer speeds too!!)
2015
Messages: Message 2
Count: @jgreco - When Freenas releases V10, and I can get access to native bare metal
2 virtualisation my plan is to migrate Freenas over to a 32gb/Core17 (extreme 6core)
Likes Received: 0 which has a native on=board intel nic. I will then ditch the realtek pci-e as you advise
Trophy Points: 1
and switch over to intel exclusively. Thanks for the tip.
Location: UK
Minty Trebor, Oct 27, 2015 #4

jgreco, Oct 27, 2015

Glad to see there's a mitigation of some sort, but obviously the 35 is less than the 40.
Usually people are trying this on wired ethernet and with Realtek, they just never get
anywhere near the native performance of a $35 desktop Intel LAN chipset.

Offline jgreco, Oct 27, 2015 #5

jgreco
Resident Grinch

Member Since: May 29,

2011
Messages: Messag 7,715
e
Count:
7,715

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SOLVED - Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over wifi - Only to freenas.... | FreeNAS Community

Likes Received: 1,162

Trophy Points: 113
Location:
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Ericloewe, Oct 29, 2015

jgreco said: ↑

The little hamsters on the wheels that push bits around inside a Realtek
chipset sometimes get very tired

Offline
Ericloewe It doesn't help that Realteks rely disproportionately on the little hamsters in the CPU.
not-very-passive-
but-aggressive
FreeNAS 9.3 Stable
Member Since: Feb 15,
2014 Supermicro X10SLM+-F with Intel Core i3 4330 and 2*8GB Crucial ECC 1.35V DDR3 1600MHz
Messages: Message 911 6 * WD30EFRX WD Red 3TB in RAIDZ2 and 2*16GB Toshiba USB drive, mirrored
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Supermicro X10/X11 FAQ and X10 Memory Recommendations
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Ericloewe, Oct 29, 2015 #6

jgreco, Oct 29, 2015

Ericloewe said: ↑

It doesn't help that Realteks rely disproportionately on the little hamsters in

the CPU.

Offline
jgreco Indeed. And just like hamsters, one crummy set of silicon seems to have evolved into
Resident Grinch an entire family of crummy silicon ...
Member Since: May 29,
2011 jgreco, Oct 29, 2015 #7
Messages: Messag 7,715
e Ericloewe likes this.
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jgreco, Oct 29, 2015

jgreco said: ↑

Indeed. And just like hamsters, one crummy set of silicon seems to have
evolved into an entire family of crummy silicon ...

Offline

https://forums.freenas.org/...ex.php?threads/successful-new-build-but-i-have-a-50-speed-loss-over-wifi-only-to-freenas.38892/[1/14/2016 3:29:07 PM]

SOLVED - Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over wifi - Only to freenas.... | FreeNAS Community

jgreco By the way, that's an obscure reference to the fact that all modern Golden hamsters
Resident Grinch are widely considered to have descended from a single brother/sister pair.
Member Since: May 29,
2011
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?...of-the-hamster-aka-mr-saddlebags-
Messages: Messag 7,715
e
1223774/?all
Count:
jgreco, Oct 29, 2015 #8
7,715
Likes Received: 1,162
Trophy Points: 113
Location:
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anodos, Nov 3, 2015

jgreco said: ↑

By the way, that's an obscure reference to the fact that all modern Golden
hamsters are widely considered to have descended from a single
brother/sister pair.
Offline
anodos http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?...of-the-hamster-aka-mr-
Belly-button Lint saddlebags-1223774/?all
Extraordinaire

Member Since: Mar 6,

2014 Wow. Brother and sister. Sounds like they're from Arkansas. Those things must've
Messages: Messag 2,285 bred like... umm... hamsters?
e
Count: How to configure CIFS permissions | CIFS Tips and Tricks | CIFS Home Directories in an AD Environment |
2,285 Tips for using Unix permissions on a samba share | How to fix slow directory browsing in CIFS | Editing
Likes Received: 360 CIFS permissions through the CLI
Trophy Points: 83 anodos, Nov 3, 2015 #9

jgreco, Nov 14, 2015

Why you harshin' on Arkansas?

Offline jgreco, Nov 14, 2015 #10

jgreco
Resident Grinch

Member Since: May 29,

2011
Messages: Messag 7,715
e
Count:
7,715
Likes Received: 1,162
Trophy Points: 113
Location:
WHO(1)ville, Unixland

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SOLVED - Successful new build - but I have a 50% speed loss over wifi - Only to freenas.... | FreeNAS Community

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