NAS n00b build

Edited with latest specs and Performance figures 5th June 2014

Hi Guys,

I've never owned a NAS before, never used any kind of Linux either but I decided to roll my own instead of a QNAP I nearly bought. It's a strange mix of old and new parts.

Hardware:
Case: SilverStone DS380 8 Bay Mini-ITX NAS Chassis with 450w PSU
CPU: Intel Core i3 4130T
MB: ASRock B85M-ITX
RAM: 4Gb of Unknown old 1333 RAM I had lying around (operating in Dual Channel Mode)
OS System Drive: An Old WD Blue 320Gb 2.5" drive
Storage Drives: 3 x 4TB WD REDS RAID 5
NIC: TP-LINK Gigabit PCI-E (the onboard nic was not recognised by the OMV 0.5.0.24 ISO I was installing with - Onboard is a Qualcomm Atheros chip)

Testing performance using NAS Tester 1.7:

Running warmup...
Running a 400MB file write on Z: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 87.83 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 76.58 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 80.45 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 78.22 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 92.69 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (W): 83.15 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Running a 400MB file read on Z: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 71.66 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 99.26 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 95.96 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 99.99 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 96.76 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (R): 92.73 MB/sec
-----------------------------

When I first had those drives installed and it was a fresh OMV install it was performing a lot better than that but now I've installed a lot of plugins (Plex/Couchpotato/Sickbeard/Headphones/SABnzbd/CLAM AV/Mini DLNA/Apple AFP) and put 2Tb of Data on there, it's slowed down a bit. I'm still very happy with the performance though.

Thanks Heaps ryecoaaron!! I'll give it a try now

Zitat von "ryecoaaron"

The version is under Diagnostics -> Information in the Version spot. Go to System -> Update Manager and update everything.

With a motherboard that new, you definitely want the backports kernel. Install omv-extras and click on install backports kernel. OMV 0.6 will give you option to use the backports 3.12/3.13 kernel which will support your onboard NIC.

Still no joy after the install of the kernel. I may end up installing Wheezy and giving 0.6 a try sometime. I don't have anything on the NAS that can't be replaced yet - still very much in testing mode for a while so it won't hurt.

Ok with a new Kernel and a Brand New 4Tb WD RED Drive:

NAS performance tester 1.7 http://www.808.dk/?nastester
Running warmup...
Running a 400MB file write on \\openmediavault\RED 5 times...
Iteration 1: 94.72 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 91.88 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 89.48 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 92.82 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 92.37 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (W): 92.26 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Running a 400MB file read on \\openmediavault\RED 5 times...
Iteration 1: 117.57 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 117.82 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 117.79 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 117.80 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 117.82 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (R): 117.76 MB/sec
-----------------------------

Then I decided to try it with the old drive and got much the same score:

NAS performance tester 1.7 http://www.808.dk/?nastester
Running warmup...
Running a 400MB file write on \\OPENMEDIAVAULT\Common 5 times...
Iteration 1: 90.61 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 90.68 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 83.01 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 91.47 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 94.73 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (W): 90.10 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Running a 400MB file read on \\OPENMEDIAVAULT\Common 5 times...
Iteration 1: 117.52 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 117.77 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 117.73 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 117.74 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 117.74 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (R): 117.70 MB/sec
-----------------------------

Obviously the Backports Kernel is the winner here. I'm not fussed at all that the Write Speed is a bit slower that the Read speed as it's the read that I'm particularly interested in. I've exceeded my expectations so very happy. Once I've bought my other 2 WD Red's I plan to buy it will be interesting to see the RAID performance

Zitat von "davidh2k"

Could you test with bigger files?

Greetings
David

Sure, I'll do that when I get back home. How big would you like it?

Oops. I forgot about doing this and now I've blown everything away and started again from scratch. I bought a couple more WD Red drives and it's currently building the RAID 5. I'll give it another speed test after that's done.

I'll give it a try some time. Still building the Raid. It takes a really long time to build doesn't it? I guess it's 12tb of space it has to initialize.

Zitat von "davidh2k"

Are you formatting and initiating at the same time? Wait for the intitialization to be finished, then the formatting goes way quicker!

Greetings
David

Not formatting the drives yet. Just creating the Raid.

I haven't actually decided on a file format yet either. Any recommendations?

Yeah in my tests I tried both and had the same result in speed. I guess EXT4 is the default so I'll probably stick with that.

OK. RAID is built and Shares Created. Default file size 400mb:

Running warmup...
Running a 400MB file write on Z: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 92.48 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 90.74 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 92.61 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 90.50 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 91.99 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (W): 91.66 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Running a 400MB file read on Z: 5 times...
Iteration 1: 110.46 MB/sec
Iteration 2: 117.22 MB/sec
Iteration 3: 116.43 MB/sec
Iteration 4: 116.41 MB/sec
Iteration 5: 116.39 MB/sec
-----------------------------
Average (R): 115.38 MB/sec
-----------------------------

Larger file size results to follow