ReadyNas Pro 6 + Plex Media Server: Real World Results

[AMRivlin]

Most likely everyone has tried Plex and streamed some form of media. I wanted to post about the level of ease and stability of using a NAS with Plex's 9.5.2 Server and multiple devices.

Network:
Router: Actiontec V1000H
Switch: Trendnet 8 port unmanaged
NAS Teeming Dual 1Gbps --> Router --> Switch --> Devices
802.11N: ~100Mbps connection (Single Band)

NAS:
RNDP6000-200NAS (Pro 6) Dual 2.6Ghz E5300
8GB DDR2 PC6400
Firmware 4.2.19

Wired Devices:
AppleTV 2 (0.10 Beta)
2009 Macbook Pro (0.9.5.2)

Wireless Devices:
2010 Macbook Air (0.9.5.2)
HP Touchpad (Free Beta 0.6.
iPhone 3GS (4.99 on app store)

Remote Device:
Nexus S (4.99 on marketplace)

Media:
6 (Different) ~12GB (per file) 1080P home videos

Started the streams on all 6 devices within a few minutes of each other.

The results are pretty easy to explain:
General Success!

Notes:
-Macbook Pro and Apple TV had no drops as they were wired.
-Touchpad is running beta software (Final coming with server 9.5.3) and took 2 tries to get the media started.
-iPhone worked on the first try
-Android Nexus S had a bit of trouble keeping up over Wifi being the last device to start, so it was switched to a 3G HSDPA Network
SIngle Band 2.4Ghz 802.11N is not enough to run more than 3 streams at once, but more than enough for 1-2.

I was able to view all 6 streams, pause, and play with little issue.

Details:
The NAS kept up with out any issues. It appeared to sustain 30-40MB/s for all 6 streams, peaking at 80MB/s.
Load was 7-9, with temperatures around 130F. Memory utilization never went over 1.5GB.

See these screenshots for more information about the loads and the system: http://imgur.com/a/5RC6m

Hopefully you found this test interesting. I didn't attempt to run anything else on the network at the same time, but could have possibly browsed and used subsonic with little effect on the streams. I also have a PS3 and would most likely have been able to DLNA another media file to it, but did not test this at this stage.

[btaroli]

Yes, I've been extremely pleased with the results on my own Pro 6. Please note that 9.5.3 is now available!

[AMRivlin]

Just installed it! What does it offer? Plex Forums report scrubbing with 9.5.3 works with TouchPad in this release.

[btaroli]

Nice blog post about it

http://elan.plexapp.com/2012/03/03/plex ... -v0-9-5-3/

[volpone]

Most likely everyone has tried Plex and streamed some form of media. ... I wanted to post about the level of ease and stability of using a NAS with Plex's 9.5.2 Server and multiple devices......

Hi AMRivin,
I'm really interested with your real world experience to stream concurrent and HD videos with Plex Media Server.

I already use ReadyNas Pro (V1) with great success to stream my SD and 720p videos (Plex =>ATV2, Ipad, Win clients) but i consider to expand my system with a second more powerfull unit suited for 1080p HD contents transcoding (2.8Ghz vs 1.6Ghz CPU clock).

Your interesting post confirm this is a good setup for this usage, but could you please confirm ?

- Hitachi 5K3000 3TB (HDS5C3030ALA630) drives perfs are adequate for HD videos streaming and transcoding (vs 7K3000 fastest alternative) ?

- 8GB memory upgrade is really needed for this usage ? (and which brand and model of RAM did you used)

Thank's again

Regards
Volpone

[mdgm]

RAM upgrades are not supported. Would suggest you try with stock 1GB RAM.

[AMRivlin]

You won't need to upgrade ram to run multiple streams.

[btaroli]

Not to whine. But as I was blowing dust out of my Pro 6, I noticed that second memory slot stating at me with its tabs spread out and whispering "you know I could use more RAM..."

[volpone]

RAM upgrades are not supported. Would suggest you try with stock 1GB RAM.

OK, Thank You.
What about Hitachi 5K3000 3TB perfs ?

[mdgm]

Hard drives aren't the bottleneck. The CPU is. For 1080p you want the Pro 6.

[volpone]

Not to whine. But as I was blowing dust out of my Pro 6, I noticed that second memory slot stating at me with its tabs spread out and whispering "you know I could use more RAM..."

Yes , i'm also currently using 4GB in my first Pro Pioneer (V1) but i don't know if this impact directly streaming perfs.
Also any idea on Hitachi 5K3000 3TB perfs ?

Thank You

[volpone]

Hard drives aren't the bottleneck. The CPU is. For 1080p you want the Pro 6.

OK i'm going to buy the Pro 6 (V2) with 4 Hitachi 5K3000 3TB drives !
What available space to expect with X-Raid2 config ?

[AMRivlin]

4 x 3TB drives
5.7 TB if dual redundancy
8.5 TB if single redundancy

[mdgm]

If you have SSH access, run the "free" command while you are transcoding. If there is both hardly anything used for cache and you're low on RAM free and plenty of the swap is in use then there's a problem running out of memory.

Code: Select all

MDGM-NAS:~# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           989        953         36          0         69        435
-/+ buffers/cache:        447        541
Swap:         2047          0       2047


On my Ultra 6 (not streaming from Plex at the moment), I have 36MB free, but 435MB is used for caching and will be freed up when needed. None of my memory swap is being used. I don't have a memory issue. However I've found the CPU in my Ultra 6 doesn't keep up with the demands of Plex transcoding to my old ageing iPhone 3G. Understandable as the Ultra 6 CPU is an Atom CPU, which is much slower than that in the Pro Business Edition/Pioneer or Ultra 6 Plus let alone the Pro 6.

[btaroli]

That's actually quite true. BUT... being a NAS, cache is a quite useful thing, especially if you're dealing with several big files at once. Say you're streaming and a couple of Time Machine backups launch. So... tuning memory for a nicely sized cache could be a good thing. That's assuming that RAIDiator doesn't do something like sync all I/O...