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Date:      Thu, 24 Sep 2015 11:44:37 -0400
From:      Paul Kraus <paul@kraus-haus.org>
To:        Dmitrijs <war@dim.lv>
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: zfs performance degradation
Message-ID:  <8D1FF55C-7068-4AB6-8C0E-B4E64C1BB5FA@kraus-haus.org>
In-Reply-To: <560412B2.9070905@dim.lv>
References:  <56019211.2050307@dim.lv> <37A37E9D-9D65-4553-BBA2-C5B032163499@kraus-haus.org> <56038054.5060906@dim.lv> <782C9CEF-BE07-4E05-83ED-133B7DA96780@kraus-haus.org> <56040150.90403@dim.lv> <60BF2FC3-0342-46C9-A718-52492303522F@kraus-haus.org> <560412B2.9070905@dim.lv>

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On Sep 24, 2015, at 11:11, Dmitrijs <war@dim.lv> wrote:

> Nope, no compression, no deduplication, only pure zfs. Even no =
prefetch, as it is not recommended for machines 4Gb RAM and below.

I am very surprised that ZFS is CPU limited on that system. My N54L has =
less CPU performance than that and I easily get 60 MB/sec via CIFS =
(Samba) from a Mac or Windows client.

> I've tested performance with 40Gb file on 4Gb ram machine, so cache =
should not count so much.

Yup. BTW, b =3D=3D bits B =3D=3D bytes (and to be pedantic, GB =3D=3D =
one billion bytes while GiB =3D=3D 2^30 bytes)

> I really hoped that I could get from 2HDD MIRROR at least 1.5x read =
performance of a single HDD, but it's more tricky as you explained.

Yup, remember that ZFS has _lots_ of metadata per fs block and it needs =
to read all of that as well as the data.

> Now I'm not sure what configuration will make better performance for 4 =
HDD - raid10 or raid-z2? Or two separate mirrors? Need directions for =
scale things up in the future.

Of all the questions you have asked that one is the easiest to answer =85 =
a zpool which has 2 vdevs each of which is a 2-way mirror will have =
roughly double the performance of a zpool that has one vdev that is a 4 =
drive RAIDz2. Performance scales with the number of vdevs, not the =
number of drives. I know that is not obvious at first, but when you look =
at the design of ZFS (all top level vdevs are striped across) it makes =
perfect sense.

So a 2 x 2-way mirror will be faster than a 4 drive RAIDz2. At a cost, =
the MTTDL (Mean Time To Data Loss) will be better for the RAIDz2 than =
the 2 x 2-way mirror. See Richard Ellings post here =
http://blog.richardelling.com/2010/02/zfs-data-protection-comparison.html =
for a comparison of relative MTTDL for ZFS configurations.

Note that I use 3-way mirrors where I need _both_ performance and =
reliability and RAIDz2 where I need mostly reliability and performance =
is secondary. But =85 back when I was managing lots of data (2007 - =
2012), I did use RADIz2 in production for critical data, but we had 22 =
top level vdevs, each a 5 drive RAIDz2 and 10 hot spares. Striping data =
across 22 RAIDz2 gave us the performance we needed with the reliability.

> I've got =
http://ark.intel.com/products/78867/Intel-Celeron-Processor-J1900-2M-Cache=
-up-to-2_42-GHz
> And 4Gb RAM.

That should beat the MicroServer in terms of CPU. I had 8 GB in my N36L =
and upgraded to 16 GB in my later N54L. I keep referencing these as they =
are more similar to your setup than my bigger SuperMicro servers. Also =
note that these MicroServers were the first generation, not the later =
Gen 8. I paid about US$200 to US$300 for the bare chassis with CPU and 2 =
GB RAM. The Gen 8 are much more expensive and I am looking for something =
cheaper for my clients now.

> Thought it would be sufficient, but now I'm in doubt.

I think that 4 GB is slightly low for a file server, but it should not =
be too bad. The CPU should be fine. What are the drives themselves ? =
[Because with only 4 GB RAM you _will_ feel the effect of drive =
performance, and it is random I/Ops that really matter for ZFS]

> I can live with reduced performance for my 1st NAS, but would be nice =
to have clear performance requirements in mind for planing future =
storage boxes.
>=20
> I see QNAPs and Synology NAS, they use like 1Ghz CPU and 1Gb of RAM =
for 4 HDD, so either I'm doing it wrong, either those NASes don't have =
performance (or safety?) at all.

Do they calculate checksums for end-to-end data integrity ?
What is their performance like ?

The data integrity and reliability features of ZFS do come at a cost.

> HP Proliant MicroServer is nice, but i've made my diskless system 2-3 =
times cheaper (200euro vs 530/650euro), so I need a reason or =
recomendation to spend x2x3 money on the thing, which specification =
looks the same.

As I said above, I have moved away from the MicroServer Gen 8 due to =
cost. The original MicroServer was a very sweet deal and I wish I had =
bought a couple of them last December when I could have gotten them for =
US$200 each :-(=20

--
Paul Kraus
paul@kraus-haus.org




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