Topic: MIni-itx - Network throughput

[gmphoto]

I have a Via V8000 with SME 6.0.1-01 installed as server only. It has 2 x 20GB laptop hard drives with software raid 1 connected to a Promise IDE controller (from memory) in the only available PCI slot.

This is the result hdparm -Tt /dev/md0

/dev/md0:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  2.02 seconds = 63.37 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.57 seconds = 24.90 MB/sec

Hope this is of use.

[laurie_lewis]

Hi Hans-Cees,

I installed 7 beta and it seemed to work fine.  Did not see any change in network performance etc.  Played with it for a couple of hours and after not being able to get some of the contribs working that I wanted I decided to go back to 6.01 for a bit longer yet.

I wouldn't be put off the itx motherboards.  As a home server they work great and pull so little power that you hardly know they are working.  I have read a little about the dual processor board that they are going to or have recently put out - some stats on how one of those works with SME would be great to see.

Laurie

[CharlieBrady]

I installed 7 beta and it seemed to work fine.  Did not see any change in network performance etc.  Played with it for a couple of hours and after not being able to get some of the contribs working that I wanted I decided to go back to 6.01 for a bit longer yet.

Please add your comments to the wiki about which contribs didn't work (and how/why they didn't work).

Thanks.

[hanscees]

I installed 7 beta and it seemed to work fine.  Did not see any change in network performance etc.  Played with it for a couple of hours and after not being able to get some of the contribs working that I wanted I decided to go back to 6.01 for a bit longer yet.

Please add your comments to the wiki about which contribs didn't work (and how/why they didn't work).

Thanks.

where? I find the wiki a bit hard to work with.

Found it: made a topic about it in experienced forum.


Hc

[gmphoto]

I have a Via V8000 with SME 6.0.1-01 installed as server only. It has 2 x 20GB laptop hard drives with software raid 1 connected to a Promise IDE controller (from memory) in the only available PCI slot.

This is the result hdparm -Tt /dev/md0

/dev/md0:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  2.02 seconds = 63.37 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.57 seconds = 24.90 MB/sec

Hope this is of use.

I know it's a bit dumb quoting your own post but I thought I would follow this topic up as it I had a problem exactly the same as hanscees and similar to that of laurie_lewis.

I think I have found a solution to the slow network and hard drive problem when an extra network card is installed. The problem and solution are covered here http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=32&threadid=52574&highlight_key=y&keyword1=v8000 and http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=32&threadid=44698&STARTPAGE=2&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

This came about because I was running my Via V8000 as server only and reinstalled SME 6.01 in server/gateway mode and had to install another network card. The performance of the network and of the hard drive went south so I did a little digging and found that others had had the same issue.

I installed the bios update as per the quoted post and all seems a lot more snappy. My hard drive figures went form woeful to acceptable

hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.99 seconds = 64.32 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.68 seconds = 23.88 MB/sec

 and the network seems to be running at around 25-30 mbits/sec (which is a lot better than the 15 to 30 Kb/sec it was running at).

ethtool reveals

ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 100Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 1
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Current message level: 0x00000001 (1)
        Link detected: yes

which is as expected.

Have just transferred around 10 gb of info to this box without a drama at the above mentioned speeds.

Gary