[ale] Network Performance Gurus - Question about Ubuntu based NAS

[Greg Freemyer]

>From what I think I hearing / reading:

The NAS could have 2 Gbit NICs connected to a switch and in turn that
switch could be connected to a single NIC on a client machine.

At that point the single NIC becomes the bottleneck, but if it is a
good NIC it should be able to run faster than 60MB/sec.

But if the PC has 2 NICs, they two could be connected in a bonded mode
(ie 802.3ad) and possibly run even faster.

==> Question:  Then do all relatively new gigabit switches support
802.3ad bonding, or do I need to get a managed one, etc?

If a managed one is required, do I have to manually setup the ports to
do bonding, or is it automatic once it is enabled for the whole
switch?

Thanks
Greg

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 1:07 PM, Greg Freemyer <greg.freemyer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Network Guru,
>
> I've done lots of work with 100 Mbit, but not much performance testing
> with 1Gbit/sec Ethernet.
>
> I'm looking at the QNAP TS509 NAS unit (reviewed at
> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30549/75/1/1/).
>
> It is running Ubuntu internally (customized I'm sure).
>
> Per the last page of the review, it shows max. read throughput at
> about 56 MB/sec. (via what client?)
>
> But one gets the impression, that it is the Ethenet link that is
> limiting the speed, not the disks/CPU.
>
> And from the post http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=492
>
> One reads that load balancing via LACL (802.3ad) allowed at least one
> TS509 user to get 87 MB/sec with a single client workstation.
>
> And with two clients, the user is claiming 62 MB/sec per client simultaneously.
>
> == questions
>
> 1) With a single socket, does 1 Gigabit ethernet tend to max out at
> only 60MB/sec or so?  Or is that more likely a limitation of a Windows
> client PC?
>
> 2) If I get a LACL (802.3ad) compliant switch, do I just need 2 cat5
> cables from it to my NAS and my client machines get accelerated via a
> single gigabit connection?  Is the answer OS dependent?
>
> 3.1) In particular, I have a Fedora box I want to connect and get as
> much throughput to/from the NAS as possible.  Will I also need to
> implement load-balancing on it via LACL?
>
> 3.2) And what about XP?  Vista?
>
> 4) For my Fedora box, do any of the performance tests even mean
> anything for this NAS, since they were testing via Windows clients.
>
> Thanks
> --
> Greg Freemyer
> Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
> First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
> http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf
>
> The Norcross Group
> The Intersection of Evidence & Technology
> http://www.norcrossgroup.com
>



-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf

The Norcross Group
The Intersection of Evidence & Technology
http://www.norcrossgroup.com