Recently i installed a file server (NAS) at my home. This was FreeNAS 9.1.1 based. And immediately I ran into a performance issue with a test network. The test network is 802.11n Wifi spun by a Linksys WRT 320N router. Its not MIMO and runs at around 150 Mbps (theoretically max.)
To my shock the data transfer speeds to my FreeNAS server (which is amply powered in CPU and RAM) was just 6 MB/s write. I checked up that the client desktop was hardly loaded while doing transfer and the server was hardly using 1% CPU. The suspicion went to the network and I checked that my WiFI link on client machine (the file server was wired with a 100 Mbps cable to the router) is just 104 Mbps. The throughput of WiFI link was just 6X8 = 48 MBPs.
I got a couple of CAT6 ethernet cables and wired both the client and file server to the router. And sure enough my throughput jumped to more than 100 MB/s. 16+ times faster. Around 130 MB/s is my SATA disk to another SATA disk transfer speed in client machine. So I assume that if remote disks on my FreeNAS server are mounted and used for storage and data, then their would hardly be a performance penalty observed. Personal cloud may just work beautifully and reliably
I was planning to buy a 802.11n MIMO router which can give me 300-450 Mbps, but I don't think its going to suffice my needs with multiple TVs, smartphones and PCs accessing the common storage area. Definitely I want to offload all my fixed devices to GbE whereas mobile devices will be attached to WiFI (the best I can get). My conclusion is that WiFI is slow and unstable. The 2.4 GHz band also seems to be unstable in the sense that there are frequent changes in link speed which makes the WiFi links unstable for streaming video. i can occasionally observe choppiness of frames. Heard that the 5 GHz band is less crowded and 802.11ac is using only the 5 GHZ band. 1080p has gone to 4K and I think I need all the speed I can get to reasonably future proof my network from content bloat. Though they would go cheap now, it may not be prudent to invest in 802.11n anymore. The new 802.11ac (5G Wifi) devices to be released in 2014 are expected to reach speeds of 1.3 Gbps and I think that's what I would want now.
And yah, FreeNAS seems to be damn cool for NAS applications. Glad I ditched embedded fixed bay nas vendors and chose freeNAS instead. Superior in every way once the initial pain of selcting hardware and installation is through.
To my shock the data transfer speeds to my FreeNAS server (which is amply powered in CPU and RAM) was just 6 MB/s write. I checked up that the client desktop was hardly loaded while doing transfer and the server was hardly using 1% CPU. The suspicion went to the network and I checked that my WiFI link on client machine (the file server was wired with a 100 Mbps cable to the router) is just 104 Mbps. The throughput of WiFI link was just 6X8 = 48 MBPs.
I got a couple of CAT6 ethernet cables and wired both the client and file server to the router. And sure enough my throughput jumped to more than 100 MB/s. 16+ times faster. Around 130 MB/s is my SATA disk to another SATA disk transfer speed in client machine. So I assume that if remote disks on my FreeNAS server are mounted and used for storage and data, then their would hardly be a performance penalty observed. Personal cloud may just work beautifully and reliably
I was planning to buy a 802.11n MIMO router which can give me 300-450 Mbps, but I don't think its going to suffice my needs with multiple TVs, smartphones and PCs accessing the common storage area. Definitely I want to offload all my fixed devices to GbE whereas mobile devices will be attached to WiFI (the best I can get). My conclusion is that WiFI is slow and unstable. The 2.4 GHz band also seems to be unstable in the sense that there are frequent changes in link speed which makes the WiFi links unstable for streaming video. i can occasionally observe choppiness of frames. Heard that the 5 GHz band is less crowded and 802.11ac is using only the 5 GHZ band. 1080p has gone to 4K and I think I need all the speed I can get to reasonably future proof my network from content bloat. Though they would go cheap now, it may not be prudent to invest in 802.11n anymore. The new 802.11ac (5G Wifi) devices to be released in 2014 are expected to reach speeds of 1.3 Gbps and I think that's what I would want now.
And yah, FreeNAS seems to be damn cool for NAS applications. Glad I ditched embedded fixed bay nas vendors and chose freeNAS instead. Superior in every way once the initial pain of selcting hardware and installation is through.
