Topic: MIni-itx - Network throughput

[laurie_lewis]

I am trying to do a comparison with other people who are using a via mini-itx motherboard as their server.  I have recently reinstalled 6.01 and I am sure that my network performance has dropped,

System
Via M1000 Moterboard
512 Meg Ram
2nd network card fitted (used for internet)
4 IDE Hard drives fitted
hda    System  80 gig  2mb cache
hdb1   Data 200 gig 2mb cache (video)
hdc1   Data 80 gig 2 mb cache  (Music)
hdd1   Data 40 gig

I have 5 computers, a media player and a print server hanging off a 100 mb hub (not a switch).  At this time I am getting the network maxing out around 2.5 to 3mb/sec.  I see the occassional peak of around 6mb/s.  At the same time the cpu is somewhere between 40 -80%.   Using System monitor to get these figures.  To get this I have 3 users watching dvds on the hard drive at the same time.  any more and it starts to break down.

I have only installed Dansguardian, dungog anit-virus and mail contribs and finally the windows update cache.

Can anyone else using this type of motherboard give me an idea of what througput you are getting please.

I would be very interested in anyone who has a dual processor mini-itx board running.

Thanks

Laurie

[cc_skavenger]

just out of curiosity, what is your hard drive throughput?

[laurie_lewis]

Not sure how you would measure this.  I am only taking the figures from system monitor for the network - nothing there for hard drives other than space used etc.  

I have thought that the hard drives might be a bit of a bottle neck but I did not think they would be that restrictive.  If you can tell me how to measure hard drive throughput I would like to actually see it myself.

Laurie

[cc_skavenger]

sure, at the command prompt, type:

hdparm -Tt /dev/hdX
where X is a for the primary master, b is for the primary slave, c is the secondary master, and d is for the secondary slave.

If you installed 2 drives in raid 1, then you would use the command:

hdparm -Tt /dev/md0
I am thinking that you might need to tweak the hdparm settings to make the controller perform better.

[laurie_lewis]

Ok,  Here is what I got

(80 gig SAMSUNG SV8004H (Capacity: 74.56 GB))
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.03 seconds =124.27 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.06 seconds = 31.07 MB/sec
[root@kennel /]# hdparm -Tt /dev/hdb

(200 gig Western Digital WDC WD2000BB-55GUA0 (Capacity: 186.31 GB))
/dev/hdb:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.98 seconds =130.61 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in 23.50 seconds =  2.72 MB/sec
[root@kennel /]# hdparm -Tt /dev/hdd

(80 gig Seagate ST380011A (Capacity: 74.53 GB))
/dev/hdd:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.02 seconds =125.49 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  1.18 seconds = 54.24 MB/sec

I have removed the 40 gig to make room for another bigger drive.

/dev/hdb jumps out but I have no idea why.  would it run better as a primary drive??

Laurie

[cc_skavenger]

Is hdb where you have the multimedia?

try entering this at the command line:
hdparm -m16 -c3 -d1 /dev/hdb
and try the command hdparm -Tt /dev/hdb again.

[laurie_lewis]

OK


I have video files only on /dev/hdb.  I have music files only on /dev/hdd.

The following is what I got back.

hdparm -m16 -c3 -d1 /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
 setting 32-bit I/O support flag to 3
 setting multcount to 16
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 I/O support  =  3 (32-bit w/sync)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
[root@kennel /]# hdparm -Tt /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.05 seconds =121.90 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.35 seconds = 27.23 MB/sec


I can see a huge difference in the last test.

Keep going I am impressed and happy at this time.  I will now try and see if the network performance improves, though I thought the hard drives might have been the problem and was copying and reading a common file to all of them.

Ta

laurie

[cc_skavenger]

ok, what type of interface is the controller, 33, 66, 100, or 133?  Same for the hard drive, 33, 66, 100, 133?  Are you using all ata 100/133 cables?

Sorry,
I am kind of using your setup for experimentation.  I am thinking of setting up one of these boards with SME and I am trying to see what it can do.

[psoren]

ok, what type of interface is the controller, 33, 66, 100, or 133?  Same for the hard drive, 33, 66, 100, 133?  Are you using all ata 100/133 cables?

Sorry,
I am kind of using your setup for experimentation.  I am thinking of setting up one of these boards with SME and I am trying to see what it can do.

Hi
I'm running my SME on a MiniITX with two WD 200G in software RAID 1 on a Promise controller (Not RAID) I will check my drives as soon as i get access to my server, probably after the weekend. I am restricted by firewall at the moment, so i can't use SSH. It will be interesting to compare.
How does yours look Marco?

Per

[cc_skavenger]

psoren,
I don't have the hardware yet.  It is just an idea.  

Your computer, on the other hand is probably working fine.  The promise ide controllers are supported pretty well in SME.  I currently use ultra 100s & 133s in my caching gateway servers and my mail servers.  They worked great out of the box.

[cc_skavenger]

Duh,
should have posted a link to what we are doing for reference.

FYI,
All of the settings we are going through are documented here:
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=28038.msg116562#msg116562

A pdf can be downloaded from here:
http://www.ccskavenger.info/SME/Howtos/
and the direct link is here:
http://www.ccskavenger.info/SME/Howtos/hdparm-optimization.pdf

[laurie_lewis]

I am only using normal ide cables.  hda (samsung)/hdb (WD) both show up as 33 drives and hdd shows up as 100 (seagate).

I am now using -m16 -c1 -u1 -d1 -X68 on the Western Digital (hdb) and it is giving 128/35 mb/s.  I have not had to touch the seagate  still getting 128/56.

The Samsung (hda) is giving 128/34.  It will not let me turn dma on - system hangs.

The two drives only giving me 34 ish are both ont he one channel whilst the seagate is by itself ont he second ide channel.  Could this be impacting on performance?

Now getting 6.5 mb/sec over the network to a local hard drive.  3.2 mb/sec from network drive to network drive.  CPU running about 40%.

Much better than I was getting but any other ideas for improvement.

I was thinking that the I should make the seagate the system drive (hda) due to its better performance.  since the other drives are mainly only being read for data they should cope with most needs.  Comments?

Ta
Laurie

[cc_skavenger]

is this an internet gateway also?  If so, then yes I would put the faster drive as the system drive.

Hope this has helped the system performance so that more users can share the media experience.

[MSmith]

Switch to 80-conductor IDE cables, definitely!  Have you checked your BIOS settings to be sure you're getting the maximum UDMA transfer rate?  Have you set master/slave or allowed cable select?  If the latter, are both drives on a given channel set to CS?  Have you disabled any unneeded onboard items such as sound, extra COM ports, etc?  Are you running the latest BIOS?  Does the VIA have onboard video and if so, have you stepped it down to the least possible resource usage, including AGP buffering?  And last but not least, how about swapping out that HUB for a SWITCH?  Here's an 8-port gigabit switch for a paltry $102 USD ...

http://www.directron.com/gs108na.html

And an Intel gigabit card to slap into the Via:

http://www.directron.com/pwla8391gtblk.html

Finally, Darrell May's excellent build of Intel drivers, including gigabit:

http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/smeserver/6.x/contrib/intel/

Note:  I make no claims regarding the aforementioned drivers actually working with the Intel NIC specified; it may be a later version but it is a PRO/1000 and May's driver supports those.

[Jáder]

I have a Mini ITX EPIA 933 (Falcon CR51) with 512MB RAM and 200GB HDD.
Here is my HDPARM results

[root@lobo root]# hdparm -T /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  2.01 seconds = 63.68 MB/sec
[root@lobo root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  1.62 seconds = 39.51 MB/sec


[root@lobo root]# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 I/O support  =  1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 nowerr       =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    =  8 (on)
 geometry     = 24321/255/63, sectors = 390721968, start = 0
 busstate     =  1 (on)
[root@lobo root]# hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Model=ST3200822A, FwRev=3.01, SerialNo=5LJ0NWCQ
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive Supports : mediumATA-1 ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5 ATA-6