Debian Headless Server Transfer Speeds

[bender1077]

Hello all,

Before the Q here's a little background.


Home File Server Project:
Converted an extremely old Compaq 7596 I found in my dad's basement into a home file server.

Specs:
- DOUBLED the RAM to 256MB!
- 10/100 Ethernet port
- SATA controller
- 30gb IDE hard drive
- 200gb SATA hard drive
- Intel Celeron 566mhz

I left the orig 30gb IDE drive installed to house the OS, and the 200gb is used for storage.

I have installed and tried out a ton of distros on this junker and finally settled on Debian Squeeze.

OK then...

I am currently using NFS file sharing for some backups, but can only get around 11mbps transfer rates no matter what my configuration. I am guessing that it is due to my ancient rig, but not sure if there is anything I should look into.

Thank you for your time.

[rezn0r]

11mbps between that and what other system? what's the surrounding network like? what router or switches are you using?

[Ratatapa]

Guessing that your network card is static to 10 and not on autonegiotiate

[rezn0r]

actually isn't 11mbps decent for a 100mb link?

and fwiw, here's a paste from a friend's response:
[04:39pm] <@friend> he said hes running debian on it with nfs
[04:39pm] <@friend> unless he's in an environment that needs it, tell him to switch to cifs (samba) instead
[04:39pm] <@friend> cos tweaking nfs for good performance is a pita and beyond the scope of that forum

[bender1077]

actually isn't 11mbps decent for a 100mb link?

and fwiw, here's a paste from a friend's response:
[04:39pm] he said hes running debian on it with nfs
[04:39pm] unless he's in an environment that needs it, tell him to switch to cifs (samba) instead
[04:39pm] cos tweaking nfs for good performance is a pita and beyond the scope of that forum

It has been a pita! The network is all Linux so I figured nfs would be the route to go as I have set up a smb share previously with around 8mbps transfer rate.

[bender1077]

Router is a netgear wndr3400, server and client both wired during transfer if it helps.

[Purrrfect]

11 megabytes/sec is pretty close to capping a 10/100 connection. Needs moar 10/100/1000.

[rezn0r]

yeah i was going to say, i thought about 12.5mb was the max, so you're not doing too bad. i could be wrong though. my house is all cat6, which i highly recommend moving to!

[bender1077]

I'll double check the read/write tests again tonight, but I was sure it was 11mbits/s and not MB/s.
I will upgrade to gbit Ethernet once I get a new desktop and convert the current one to the server.

[bender1077]

Welp... I got her transferring at about 6-10 MB/s now. Much faster.
There was a white space issue in my /etc/exports file and tested additional rsize and wsize values.
Lets consider solved.

Thanks for your suggestions!