Post by chris74 on Apr 4, 2010 2:01:38 GMT 7
Thecus boast that you can connect up to 30 clients simultaneously to this device. I have 16 servers to backup each day so thought this would be ideal. I was new to the technology and hadnt realised its serious limitations.
Unfortunately, whether using iSCSI or NFS - the performance halves with every client you connect - rendering it useless as a backup device for multiple machines.
Using a Gigabit network, my tests from one connected client showed the throughput to be around 60 to 70MB/s which is ok I suppose. I was hoping for more. Performing read and write tests from two, four or six clients simultaneously caused the performance to degrade to unacceptable levels. It soon became clear that backing up my 16 servers was not going to be possible - the throughput became reduced to around 4MB/s.
It seems 60-70MB/s (out of a whole Gigabit) is the overall throughput you have to work with. Each connected server or workstation will eat into that, so try to backup 5 or 6 clients at the same time and the throughput for each will be reduced to around 8MB/s which is just too slow.
It seems the massive network overhead with this technology rules it out for reliable backup storage. Those serious about using this kind of device for making simultaneous backups would benefit from the 10Gbit version - a 1Gbit network just isnt enough.
Perhaps if Thecus had included multiple LAN interfaces on the device, this problem could be reduced. As it stands, it has put me right off using network attached storage for the time being. I will find a use for the N8800 but it wont be for backing up my servers.
Unfortunately, whether using iSCSI or NFS - the performance halves with every client you connect - rendering it useless as a backup device for multiple machines.
Using a Gigabit network, my tests from one connected client showed the throughput to be around 60 to 70MB/s which is ok I suppose. I was hoping for more. Performing read and write tests from two, four or six clients simultaneously caused the performance to degrade to unacceptable levels. It soon became clear that backing up my 16 servers was not going to be possible - the throughput became reduced to around 4MB/s.
It seems 60-70MB/s (out of a whole Gigabit) is the overall throughput you have to work with. Each connected server or workstation will eat into that, so try to backup 5 or 6 clients at the same time and the throughput for each will be reduced to around 8MB/s which is just too slow.
It seems the massive network overhead with this technology rules it out for reliable backup storage. Those serious about using this kind of device for making simultaneous backups would benefit from the 10Gbit version - a 1Gbit network just isnt enough.
Perhaps if Thecus had included multiple LAN interfaces on the device, this problem could be reduced. As it stands, it has put me right off using network attached storage for the time being. I will find a use for the N8800 but it wont be for backing up my servers.