Are those file server transfer speeds normal?

StefanoA

New Member
Jan 4, 2023
5
0
1
I've been using my small proxmox homelab server running for several months now with very few issues running those services:
- VM OpenWrt acting as my main home router
- VM Home Assitant
- different file server (LXC or VM)
- some other services such as Jellyfin and Transmission

the file server is unspecified because I've tried several solutions: OpenMediaVault as LXC, Xpenology as VM, Turnkey LXC fileserver and most recently OMV again as VM
combined with different storage solutions (bind points on the main/single SSD, SATA SSD passed as virtualized disk)

basically I was always able to have the file services properly working (SMB and NFS) but I always achieved a maximum of 50/60/70MBps (megabytes per second) in sequential read/write with my computer connected by 1000Mbps LAN cable directly to the server

The server is this one (or another very very similar one) N5105 CPU, 2x8GB 3200DDR4 RAM, 4x2.5Gbps Intel i-226v NICs, single 1TB SSD with single ZFS pool, Proxmox updated to latest version

Some iperf3 tests between the openwrt VM router have shown close to 1Gbps speed, as expected. But copying of large files in both ways never exceeded 5/600Mbps

Even though the NVME interface and SSD itself aren't the fastest I think they should easily be able to reach 3/4/500MBps transfer rate so I'm wondering why I was never able to achieve transfer the speed slightly above 100MBps expected over 1Gbps LAN connection.
On the client PC side I'm copying to/from a quite fast SSD so no bottleneck there.

Last test were made on OMV6 as VM and during the transfer the CPU load (2 cores assigned to OMV) was around 50%
I tried using a SATA SSD and not a bind point on the main SSD ZFS pool to avoid the overhead of ZFS

So I'm wondering and asking for help here: where is the bottleneck reducing my speed?
In theory I was expecting to being able to get even 2Gbps transfer rate with this kind of HW+SW configuration but I'm stuck well below 1Gbps

What kind of tests/settings can I try to improve?

thanks in advance
Stefano
 
Last edited:

About

The Proxmox community has been around for many years and offers help and support for Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, and Proxmox Mail Gateway.
We think our community is one of the best thanks to people like you!

Get your subscription!

The Proxmox team works very hard to make sure you are running the best software and getting stable updates and security enhancements, as well as quick enterprise support. Tens of thousands of happy customers have a Proxmox subscription. Get yours easily in our online shop.

Buy now!