These are the results of experimentation using both servers and desktop hardware using software based NAS/SAN solutions. The servers were single/dual chip Xeon systems with 4GB RAM and 7.2K/10K SAS/SATA drives and GigE while the desktop systems (which were always the location of the NAS/SAN software installation) were either a Celeron with 512MB/1GB/2GB and 7.2K SATA drives or an Intel E8400 with 4GB RAM and 7.2K SATA drives. GigE was used whenever possible although we had to resort to using 10/100 Ethernet sometimes due to resource constraints. OpenFiler as well as FreeNAS were obviously tested. There is no guarantee that these results are valid across the board due to the low spec hardware being used and are as much for personal interest as for experimental validation. Moreover, the software versions being used are probably about 1.5 years old from the date of publication of this post. Note that Windows based NAS/SAN solutions are also available such as from StarWind who make both target as well as initiator software for Windows Server based operating systems.
OpenFiler stats in RAID1 configuration using NTFS with default blocks over iSCSI over GigE on server-d3. Results are very consistent.
~50-60MB/s read via iSCSI
~50-60MB/s write via iSCSI
[root@server-c1 test]# smbclient '//192.168.200.218/vgname.vol.share'
WARNING: The "printer admin" option is deprecated
Password:
Domain=[OPENFILER.OPENDO] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.2.6]
smb: \> mget *
Get file CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-1of6.iso? yes
getting file \CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-1of6.iso of size 654186496 as
CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-1of6.iso (19788.6 kb/s) (average 19788.6 kb/s)
smb: \> mget *
Get file CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-4of6.iso? y
getting file \CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-4of6.iso of size 662644736 as
CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-4of6.iso (21133.0 kb/s) (average 20443.0 kb/s)
Get file CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-3of6.iso? y
getting file \CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-3of6.iso of size 665085952 as
CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-3of6.iso (19755.4 kb/s) (average 20207.0 kb/s)
Get file CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-5of6.iso? y
getting file \CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-5of6.iso of size 668745728 as
CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-5of6.iso (20591.9 kb/s) (average 20302.7 kb/s)
OpenFiler stats in RAID1 configuration using NTFS with default blocks over iSCSI over GigE. Results are extremely variable depending on the file/s being tested.
~60-110MB/s read via iSCSI
~10-30MB/s write via iSCSI
OpenFiler stats in RAID0 configuration using NTFS over iSCSI over 10/100 Fast Ethernet.
10.4MB/s via iSCSI
OpenFiler stats in RAID0 configuration using NTFS over iSCSI over 10/100 Fast Ethernet.
10.4MB/s via iSCSI
OpenFiler stats in RAID0 configuration using Ext3 over SMB over 10/100 Fast Ethernet.
smb: \> mput ENDIAN*
Put file ENDIAN-FIREWALL-SOFTWARE-APPLIANCE-DEMO.iso? yes
putting file ENDIAN-FIREWALL-SOFTWARE-APPLIANCE-DEMO.iso as
\ENDIAN-FIREWALL-SOFTWARE-APPLIANCE-DEMO.iso (9150.8 kb/s) (average
9150.8 kb/s)
smb: \> mput openfiler*
Put file openfiler-2.3-x86-disc1.iso? yes
putting file openfiler-2.3-x86-disc1.iso as
\openfiler-2.3-x86-disc1.iso (8907.6 kb/s) (average 8990.8 kb/s)
smb: \> mput elastix*
Put file Elastix-1.5.2-stable-i386-bin-31mar2009.iso? yes
putting file Elastix-1.5.2-stable-i386-bin-31mar2009.iso as
\Elastix-1.5.2-stable-i386-bin-31mar2009.iso (9147.2 kb/s) (average
9077.9 kb/s)
OpenFiler stats in RAID1 configuration using Ext3 over SMB over 10/100 Fast Ethernet.
[root@server-m ISOS]# smbclient '//192.168.200.218/raid1v.raid1vn.SHARE'
Password:
Domain=[OPENFILER.OPENDO] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.2.6]
smb: \> dir
. D 0 Wed Jun 10 16:54:56 2009
.. D 0 Wed Jun 10 16:54:56 2009
44010 blocks of size 16777216. 41762 blocks available
smb: \> mput ENDIAN*
Put file ENDIAN-FIREWALL-SOFTWARE-APPLIANCE-DEMO.iso? y
putting file ENDIAN-FIREWALL-SOFTWARE-APPLIANCE-DEMO.iso as
\ENDIAN-FIREWALL-SOFTWARE-APPLIANCE-DEMO.iso (7962.9 kb/s) (average
7962.9 kb/s)
smb: \> mput openfiler*
Put file openfiler-2.3-x86-disc1.iso? y
putting file openfiler-2.3-x86-disc1.iso as
\openfiler-2.3-x86-disc1.iso (8888.7 kb/s) (average 8542.7 kb/s)
smb: \> mput elastix*
Put file Elastix-1.5.2-stable-i386-bin-31mar2009.iso? y
putting file Elastix-1.5.2-stable-i386-bin-31mar2009.iso as
\Elastix-1.5.2-stable-i386-bin-31mar2009.iso (8855.3 kb/s) (average
8715.4 kb/s)
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 formatted configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with UFS using NFS.
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 180313088 May 9 05:01
hyperic-hq-installer-4.1.2-win32.msi
[root@localhost Hyperic]# time `cp hyperic-hq-installer-4.1.2-win32.msi /mnt/freenas/`
real 0m33.350s
user 0m0.034s
sys 0m0.503s
-rwxr----- 1 root root 482002540 Apr 22 22:57
zcs-5.0.14_GA_2850.RHEL5.20090303142201.tgz
[root@localhost ~]# time `cp zcs-5.0.14_GA_2850.RHEL5.20090303142201.tgz /mnt/freenas/`
real 0m48.765s
user 0m0.081s
sys 0m1.566s
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 19509248 May 5 09:48 WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
[root@localhost ~]# time `cp WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe /mnt/freenas/`
real 0m3.386s
user 0m0.005s
sys 0m0.052s
Definitely hit a bottleneck somewhere here. Dead flat line on transfer test now...
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 formatted configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with UFS.
11MB/s FTP
8.6MB/s SMB
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 formatted configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with 2GB RAM/64 KByte Blocks and then remount as a iSCSI target.
9.2MB/s iSCSI via HD-Tune
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 Configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with 2GB RAM/64 KByte Blocks.
10.4MB/s iSCSI via HD-Tune
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 Configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with 2GB RAM/4096 Byte Blocks.
10.4MB/s iSCSI via HD-Tune
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 Configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with 2GB RAM.
10.4MB/s iSCSI via HD-Tune
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 0 Configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with 512 RAM.
10.2MB/s iSCSI via HD-Tune
FreeNAS stats in a RAID 1 Configuration using 10/100 Fast Ethernet with 512 RAM.
11MB/s FTP
10MB/s SMB
9.8MB/s iSCSI via HD-Tune
4MB/s SCP
1.3 MB/s HTTP
Test LACP later using ProCurve (Switch_C) in order to determine impact of link aggregation.
OpenFiler was attempted and worked in a single disk configuration with LDAP authentication but when it ran with RAID 1 and LDAP the entire graphical interface seemed to break. For instance, evaluation page seemed to stop.
Things to definitely check for when building a software based NAS are cable connections (especially IDE/SATA cables), power supply capacity, adequate bandwidth, and a means through which to test the bandwidth of your connection.
Obviously, FC is not within our current budgetary means.
If had the budget to build a hardware based DAS/NAS/SAN solution for under 1K would most likely look at following solutions:
- Synology DS-209 (good feature set, high price, fast transfer rates)
- Netgear ReadyNAS Duo and its variants (good feature set, reasonable price, reasonable transfer rates)
- Thecus N2050B (very few reviews available though and is technically a DAS device that uses eSATA)
Options that would definitely avoid are the following:
- DLink DNS-323 (has problems with RAID rebuild based on reviews)
- Linksys NAS200 (slow transfer rates, 10/100 only)
- NetGear SC-101/101T (not a real NAS/SAN, 10/100 only, limited number/type drives can be used)
- as usual thanks to all of the individuals and groups who purchase and use my goods and services
http://sites.google.com/site/dtbnguyen/
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/
- as usual thanks to all of the individuals and groups who purchase and use my goods and services
http://sites.google.com/site/dtbnguyen/
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/
