Would be a ReadyNAS Pro be adequate for a Production Studio

[Francky]

Hey Guys, last year I bought a ReadyNAS NV+ and was pleased with it, but as my numbers of employees grew it became quite rapidly incapable of responding to our needs. As the speed just wasn't there. As more people accessed it, the faster it basically chocked.

Now, my studio is much bigger, with about a maximum of 12 people that might need to access the file storage system. I'm now in looking for a better solution, I have access to a Dell server and was thinking of buying an external Raid Drive system that could do about 500 Meg/sec. This should be perfect, but I love the simplicity of a NAS. Since our pipeline is both Mac and PC, the fact that a ReadyNAS supports both so easily is comforting

My question is, as the subject indicate, would a ReadNAS PRO, be a feasible solution for a Production Studio, one that works with Huge files (HD images) and do so without having the feeling that the server is chocking on the workload of 12 people accessing such huge amount of data?

Would a Pioneer be OK for us if it's just a file server or would there be better performance with the business version?

And finally, would a Server with a RAID system of 500 meg/sec, using TWO Ethernet ports, give us about Twice the performance of the readyNAS Pro? (At a much steeper cost though)

The cool thing with the Pro would be that I'd use the NV+ as a mirror solution, buying a second NV+ and alternate each week, to always have a mirror of site. (Or would there be a better solution ?)

Thanks guys,

Francois Beaudry
President / T.D.
M4MOUSE

[dbott67]

Would a Pioneer be OK for us if it's just a file server or would there be better performance with the business version?

The underlying hardware is exactly the same, however, the Business Edition supports LACP ethernet bonding, as well as Active Directory integration (and a few other features). According to yoh-dah, the developers have been able to achieve 240 MB/s reads and 140 MB/s writes with teaming enabled:

... I measured his X-RAID2 performance locally and that showed 240 MB/sec reads and 140 MB/sec writes...

And finally, would a Server with a RAID system of 500 meg/sec, using TWO Ethernet ports, give us about Twice the performance of the readyNAS Pro? (At a much steeper cost though)

I don't really know... supposing that the number are accurate, then yes, the Dell will offer more performance. Of course, the hard drive subsystem won't really be the bottleneck, the network will. At best, with LACP bonding enabled both the Pro Business and Dell would be limited to saturating dual gigabit links (250 MB/s theoretical) so the NAS not is the bottleneck as it will be able to fill the network link (as will the Dell).

I would say that the network is going to be your bottleneck more-so than the Pro or Dell, although I will defer to those folks that have experience in your line of work.

-Dave

[Francky]

Wait a sec ?! Are you telling me the ReadyNAS Pro is actually capable of 240 MB/sec read and 140 MB/sec write, and not the 120 I've been seeing all over the place? That's awesome!

If I understand correctly, the speed people have been reporting was simply limited by the speed of Ethernet, correct ?

This would mean the Pro is really the best solution for me, the only remaining question is, does it perform well when multiple users try to use the maximum out of it at the same time ? Will it load balance properly, or will it act a bit like the readyNAS NV+ does and be more of a first come first serve kinda response (At least it feels that way)

I guess I wouldn't need Ethernet bonding, as I would need a machine with 10 gig ports to use that speed, and Active Directory is nice, but if all I do is a file server, it too would be unneeded, so the Pioneer should be perfect for me, thanks for the info.

Would adding more ram give me better performance, or would that only be needed if I ran more services or had hundreds of users accessing it ?

Thanks again for any info

[Francky]

I've been looking all over the forum using the search tool for this quote of Yoh-dah, but all I can find is you repeating it, lol

Where can I find the thread this comes from, I'd love to see the discution.

Thanks

Francois

[dbott67]

Yoh-dah's performance numbers came while testing multiple clients connected to a Pro Business with ethernet teaming enabled. Without the bonding, you'll get limited to the network speed.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=23056&p=126844#p126844

The actual quote came from yoh-dah in a private sub-forum (which is why you can't find it with the search function). I was responding to another user's question about using both NICs on the NVX to maximize bandwidth between it and his computer and I responded by saying that the limiting factor was the hard drive throughput which was around 80 MB/s. I brought up the performance specs on the Pro and said:

The ReadyNAS Pro is around 100 MB/s (800 Mbps) which just about maxes out a gigabit connection (there's always some overhead with ethernet, so it's unlikely to ever reach 1,000 MB/s).

To which yoh-dah replied:

Haven't gotten to measuring the local performance on the NVX, but the Pro can handle around 240 MB/sec reads and 140 MB/sec writes, so you can go beyond gigE. In fact, we can get to 150 MB/sec with 2 clients over LACP with 2 volumes (of 3 drives each) on the Pro.

And me again after putting foot in mouth:

240 MB/s! Zoiks!!

@ OP: Sorry for any confusion with respect to the Pro. I was referring to the performance from the client-side of the equation, as opposed to what Pro (or NVX, for that matter) could deliver to multiple simultaneous connections, as alluded to in my first response about 802.3ad:

The bonding methods offered are more for redundancy and/or to allow better performance with a large number of simultaneous client connections. It also requires a switch that supports 802.3ad link aggregation (such as the Netgear GS108T).

I suppose that if you had a PC with dual-gigE and a switch that supported 802.3ad, you could configure a 2 Gbps link between PC and NAS. That said, there are a number of bottlenecks on the client PC that you might run into along the way that would prevent you from realizing the same sort of speeds seen in a multi-client setup (bus speed of PC, hard drive subsystem through-put, OS/driver limitations, etc).

I'll shut up now before I put any more feet in my mouth!

So, in order to achieve the max performance, you will need the Business Edition & setup the unit for 802.3ad (LACP). Your network switch will need to support this option. The Netgear GS108T listed below in my signature does support it, as would it's 16 & 24-port counterparts.

I'll let others chime in as to how it performs under heavy load, as I do not have any first-hand experience with putting the Pro under this kind of load.

-Dave

[Francky]

Anyone care to chime in about their experience with the Pro under heavy load, this is crucial info for me. I can't buy it and then realize afterword that it chokes if 5 or 6 people try to access big files from it...

Thanks,

Francois

(it might interest some to see what we plan to do with it http://www.m4mouse.com)

[dbott67]

Nice commercials!

One thing I can say is that the Pro is capable of streaming 14 high definition videos at the same time:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=27995&p=154791#p154791

More specifically, I believe the Pro can be configured for the appropriate level of load balancing using one of the built-in NIC teaming methods:

http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=594

Again, I will defer to others for real-world performance, but it's just a bit more info for you to mull over in the meantime.

-Dave

[Francky]

More specifically, I believe the Pro can be configured for the appropriate level of load balancing using one of the built-in NIC teaming methods: http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=594

Cool, but isn't the Business edition the only one with teaming... meaning I'd have to go with the pro for load balancing?
Would love input from someone that has actually done this or knows first hand

The price difference is so big between them, I guess if need be I could always go with the smaller one (1.5 tb) and recycle the drives in other systems so I can put my own. I'm not gonna pay 400$ for drives worth 150$, lol

In one of the links you showed me, someone talked about QNAP. Looking into them, it Blew my mind and was thinking of going with them... until I realized all their benchmark where in Mbits and not MB, D'oh! Hehehe
Kinda sad that they would do that, who talks about drive speed in bits ?! (Well them, apparently )

[dbott67]

Cool, but isn't the Business edition the only one with teaming... meaning I'd have to go with the pro for load balancing?

Yes... I've been saying that all along :

So, in order to achieve the max performance, you will need the Business Edition

The underlying hardware is exactly the same, however, the Business Edition supports LACP ethernet bonding, as well as Active Directory integration (and a few other features). According to yoh-dah, the developers have been able to achieve 240 MB/s reads and 140 MB/s writes with teaming enabled

with LACP bonding enabled both the Pro Business and Dell would be limited to saturating dual gigabit links (250 MB/s theoretical) so the NAS not is the bottleneck as it will be able to fill the network link (as will the Dell).

The price difference is so big between them, I guess if need be I could always go with the smaller one (1.5 tb) and recycle the drives in other systems so I can put my own. I'm not gonna pay 400$ for drives worth 150$, lol

Well, it's not just the drives. It's iSCSI, NIC teaming/bonding, snapshots, rsync-over-ssh, AD integration, an extra 2 years warranty, etc.

Would love input from someone that has actually done this or knows first hand

Although I use some of the load balancing & teaming options at home and work, I am not placing near the workload that you would be and can't really give you the first-hand information that you're looking for (so I'll shutup now).

[Francky]

LOL, Yeah I know you had mentioned teaming was only available in the Pro.

But the info that you needed teaming for load balancing is new

To me it seems like such a different thing, that I feel it should have been stipulated as also a feature for the Business model... Heck it would have saved you the trouble of going all Quote crazy. (I kid, I kid)

So I guess that settles it, I'll go with the Pro and an extra NV+ for backup. Thanks for all the input Dave