File Copying And Backup Solutions Discussion

[Lazybones]

Windows is mostly broken up into two stacks. The switch happened with vista / 2008 server.

File transfers between those generations can have issues if not tweaked.

[Thorin]

I use TeraCopy because it can resume stopped transfers, has a nice double-bar UI (top bar shows current file progress, bottom bar shows overal progress), uses two distinct transfer techniques based on whether it's copying on the same physical drive or to a different physical drive, and shaved at least 15% off transfer times in WinXP (haven't done the actual math in Win7 or Win8.1).  Oh, and it can handle multiple copies from multiple locations to multiple locations by running one at a time, or if you like you can start multiple transfers.  And you can pause them if you need a specific transfer to complete sooner.

I'm sure Tom sees faster transfer speeds than I do, but the only time I'm transferring on my network is to/from the Drobo, and it seems to not be able to handle faster than about 33MB/s incoming.  Maybe one of these days I'll try transferring from a Win8.1-on-SSD to another Win8.1-on-SSD via gigabit ethernet to see how fast I can really get it to go.

Speed, however, is not actually at the forefront of my concern when copying.  Pausing and restarting transfers, getting details of what files failed to copy, having multiple transfers running at the same time and not thrashing the drive, that's more important to me.

[Lazybones]

Have you checked your Drobo specs, 33MB/264mbps sounds about right for a lower end home NAS.

[Tom]

That's about what I'd expect for a drobo, especially the older ones. They are really just small embedded arm or risc boxes with little ram, and a custom wrapper over jbod. Very handy little boxes, but not there for "speed". You (sadly) have to pay for that (through the nose).

[Mr. Analog]

Write speed is slow for sure, read speed is pretty decent

I have a first generation drobo, I've been copying files since 1 AM using xcopy

4 GB down 3 to go

[Darren Dirt]

Windows is mostly broken

Starting a post with those words should bring in some interesting traffic

[Mr. Analog]

Windows is mostly broken

Starting a post with those words should bring in some interesting traffic

Sexy windows is erotically broken

FTFY

[Thorin]

Have you checked your Drobo specs, 33MB/264mbps sounds about right for a lower end home NAS.

Not sure if you're telling me I should be getting faster transfers, or if you're telling me I should be happy with this speed.

My Drobo is a Drobo FS, which has never been known for its speed.  The best explanation I've read is that it has a dual-core processor and one of the cores is exclusively used for shuffling files around and running BeyondRAID, so that leaves only one core to handle any front-end UI stuff as well as all data transfers.  And it's an ARM processor, so it's already a step behind speed-wise.

I could move up to a Drobo 5N, which has a better processor (more than two cores) and the ability to use a small SSD to speed things up and an OS optimized for the better hardware, but reports on how fast it is fluctuate quite a bit.  Some people say 50MB/s, some say 70MB/s, some have posted screenshots of 90+MB/s.  Keep in mind that it's attached to a 1GbE network, so theoretical maximum is 125MB/s.

I know that I can buy a high-end NAS for about a grand and get a couple of 10GbE ports on it, along with more space for drives and better processors.  That's overkill for what I use my NAS for, though, and also for what I see myself using my NAS for in the future.

All that said, I like my Drobo because of the ease of use.  I had a drive problem (not enough space), one of the kids noticed the orange light and asked me about it, I bought another drive and pushed it in.  The slower speed does not bother me enough to spend $500 to $1,000 replacing it.

[Lazybones]

Have you checked your Drobo specs, 33MB/264mbps sounds about right for a lower end home NAS.

Not sure if you're telling me I should be getting faster transfers, or if you're telling me I should be happy with this speed.

My Drobo is a Drobo FS, which has never been known for its speed.  The best explanation I've read is that it has a dual-core processor and one of the cores is exclusively used for shuffling files around and running BeyondRAID, so that leaves only one core to handle any front-end UI stuff as well as all data transfers.  And it's an ARM processor, so it's already a step behind speed-wise.

I could move up to a Drobo 5N, which has a better processor (more than two cores) and the ability to use a small SSD to speed things up and an OS optimized for the better hardware, but reports on how fast it is fluctuate quite a bit.  Some people say 50MB/s, some say 70MB/s, some have posted screenshots of 90+MB/s.  Keep in mind that it's attached to a 1GbE network, so theoretical maximum is 125MB/s.

I know that I can buy a high-end NAS for about a grand and get a couple of 10GbE ports on it, along with more space for drives and better processors.  That's overkill for what I use my NAS for, though, and also for what I see myself using my NAS for in the future.

All that said, I like my Drobo because of the ease of use.  I had a drive problem (not enough space), one of the kids noticed the orange light and asked me about it, I bought another drive and pushed it in.  The slower speed does not bother me enough to spend $500 to $1,000 replacing it.

A home NAS will not drive 10GbE at all not to mention the related equipment is crazy expensive.

Having a system that can fully utilize 1Gig is a worth while goal and not all that hard... However remember that file transfer performance is also dependent on the destination device... I field complaints at work sometimes about transfer speeds to crappy desktop units. File transfers are only as good as both ends, and RAID has over head.

I could not find any info on the Dropbo FS real performance, there might actually be different models.

I get up to 84MB/s from my custom server (linux) over 1Gig Ethernet to my desktop (win 8.1) that has an SSD.

[Tom]

I manage to get 110MB/s off my nas via NFS. Pretty much comes close to saturating my GbE Lan. When I had bonding set up, I think I saw 150MB/s or more (sadly bonding actually kinda sucks, I was hoping for like 180% not 140% boost). The actual raid array is capable of 400-500MB/s local read speeds, it used to be a bit faster, but my replacement WD Red drives are slower than the older Seagates by 20MB/s or so. It's worth the trade off. The local read speeds are useful when the raid array is multi-use. I can stream video via nfs, plex, have a backup going, and torrents, and not notice any of it. Back in the day, I'd notice when a backup was going on because streaming video would hiccup on occasion.

I installed a distro called OpenMediaVault this time instead of a bare debian install like I usually do. It made setting up crucial things like mdmon, hddtemp, smartmon, and other bits a lot simpler.

[Lazybones]

My Setup is also OpenMediaVault but I have fewer and slower drives in my array...

[Thorin]

Yeah, not too long ago I was still using a desktop with only 100MbE.  Now I'm on a desktop with 1GbE and an SSD transferring to an old Drobo FS.  The FS really is quite slow, tonight I saw 28MB/s-31MB/s copying to it, which is right in line with what I've read other people reporting for their speed.  But it's an old device.  Like I said, I could get much better speeds if I buy a new Drobo 5N, but I'm not interested in spending the money.  I could also buy new hardware and set up an OpenMediaVault like you guys have, but again, that's money.  Also, can you hot-swap any size drives there without having to open a box or anything?

I get that faster speeds are better, but I don't actually notice the slow speeds except when copying large files to the Drobo.  I stream through Plex, with Plex reading from the Drobo, and I can stream multiple files while also copying files to the Drobo.  It's slow, but it doesn't stutter or anything.

[Tom]

Yeah, not too long ago I was still using a desktop with only 100MbE.  Now I'm on a desktop with 1GbE and an SSD transferring to an old Drobo FS.  The FS really is quite slow, tonight I saw 28MB/s-31MB/s copying to it, which is right in line with what I've read other people reporting for their speed.  But it's an old device.  Like I said, I could get much better speeds if I buy a new Drobo 5N, but I'm not interested in spending the money.  I could also buy new hardware and set up an OpenMediaVault like you guys have, but again, that's money.  Also, can you hot-swap any size drives there without having to open a box or anything?

My little pc-q25b case has hotswap for 5 drives, just have to pop off the side cover that is held in place with some pressure fit pins. Two of the drives are not hot swap But it's full, and if there's an error I'm most likely not going to hotswap anyhow. I just don't trust it. lol.

I get that faster speeds are better, but I don't actually notice the slow speeds except when copying large files to the Drobo.  I stream through Plex, with Plex reading from the Drobo, and I can stream multiple files while also copying files to the Drobo.  It's slow, but it doesn't stutter or anything.

Yeah, its up to what you need. If its enough, its fine I did what I did to solve a problem i was having

[Lazybones]

I am fine with my speed as well... You don't need to go faster unless there is a reason..

I am currently looking at solutions for work that can transfer over 1GB/s. Fun scaling problems start to happen when your databases are in measured in TB.

[Tom]

I am fine with my speed as well... You don't need to go faster unless there is a reason..

I am currently looking at solutions for work that can transfer over 1GB/s. Fun scaling problems start to happen when your databases are in measured in TB.

Intel released a few new nvme ssds one is a server grade beast that can do 2.8GB/s read, and a lower end enthusiast device that can do 2.4GB/s. Some pretty cool things coming out. Both have 1TB versions. Pretty snazzy. I imagine they'd make killer upper layer or cache devices.