15 replies to this topic

[theseal]

Hello fellow WHS users.. I don't know if you could help me or comfort me, but please try...

For a while, I've been running WHS on a HP proliant ML110 G5 Duocore-Xeon 3065@2.33GHz, 1066FSB, 1GB DDR2 6400 Memory, GB NIC, 3.4TB drivespace on 4 SATA Drives (sys drive is only 250GB).

The add-ins I'm using is:
Ripnas (1.7)
Disk Management 1.1.2

Squeezebox server 7.4.2 (standalone, starting w services, not really an addin, but key feature for me)

Besides that I am also running utorren w web-GUI. (20 or so torrent seeding)



I am streaming mostly FLAC to 4 different SB'es around the house, and streaming DIVX, ISO's Bluray-rips and other HD-content to my Xtreamer. Every 24h my GF is backing up her laptop w the WHS backuptool.

The servers i SO darn slow, unresponsive and stops doing things randomly, basicly it friggin sucks... POWER-sucks... SB is sluggish, and hacks, navigation sucks and loads slow. Streaming HD material is useless, I have not been able to see one whole movie without random stops yet.

My old dog, debian stable, Dual PIII 1GHz, 1GB SDRAM, does the trick A LOT better, and more (routing, FW, FTP-server, web server w some traffic etc etc..... It never hickups, newer stops, never get unresponsive.. Same content, same jobs..

The ML110 should in my opinion be running circles around the 10 or something year old 133MHZ FSB debain machine..

The PageFile usage is around 1GB at all the time and the processor load is seldom over 5%, including ripping CD->FLAC. WHY IS IT SO darn SLOW?!?!?

Iv'e been noticing that there is almost always 3-5MB/s traffic from and to the sysdrive. And the drive-balance is always recently updated (like 5 mins ago when I am starting the WHS Console.


Could it be to little RAM?
Could it be to little sysdrive/landingspace? (that drive is 16% full so there is at least 150GB of space)
Could one or more drives be damaged?

Im I overseeing things?

PLEASE HALP ME!! I do not want to give the RipNas up, its the best since sliced bread, and I can't live without it!! (if it wasen't for that It would have been Debian all over the place)

I HAVE been reading a lot, and trying things but nothing really have been the solution...

Edited by wardog (WGS), 20 March 2010 - 04:41 PM.
Removed cuss words. Warned User

[wardog]

I would definitely throw some more RAM at it considering all you're asking of it.

Is the torrent programs workings(up and down files) maintained on a separate drive all their own? And not in WHS's pooled drives? ie: too many concurrent disc reads/writes can bring a server to its knees.

[theseal]

Good points there, Wardog.

Maybe I should move the torrent-stuff to an USB-drive ore something. (it is not really heavy traffic but still)
More RAM is on the whishlist, but the ECC stuff have been proving not so easy to get my fingers on..
How much RAM should I use? 4GB?

[gagaga]

More RAM is definitely the key - all that seeding, and streaming the FLACs uses up a lot of RAM for buffering .. add another gig more and you should be okay, 2 or 3 gig more and it'll be flying. I'd keep stuff off USB drives .. that'l just slow things down. Don't worry too much about keeping matched dual channel RAM - it'll have no effect on a home server so just get whatever you can find cheapest.

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

2GBs is fine for most systems, but if you are doing a lot, 4GBs may be better.

As for the stuttering, try disabling "checksum offload" on all the NICs in your network.

[J1mbo]

ECC RAM for this server can be sought from Crucial (their part CT782629 is 2x 1GB) however I would keep an eye on eBay for a used stick. I recently sold a 1GB DIMM for one of these for £6 only.

Re performance, check you logs for any drive issues. Check also that your NIC is on auto/auto (speed/duplex) and your switch is similarly configured.

[theseal]

thanks all, more RAM is on the list.

What is the maximum RAM that WHS can utilize? XP has a 3GB limit or so? Is there any meaning to have more then 4GB?

....all that seeding...

I'll really don´t think that is alot of seeding, my old machine were seeding 2-300 torrents, yeah the load went up, but it did not stop the machine as this does.

utorrent is the lightest client around for WHS?

What should I use as disksetup for torrents, since the pool seems to be a bad place for seeding torrents?

As for the stuttering, try disabling "checksum offload" on all the NICs in your network.

Where do I do that?



thanks all for your time!

[theseal]

Jimbo:

Re performance, check you logs for any drive issues

What am I looking for?

[J1mbo]

Anything referencing SCSI or drives or SATA in the system log. Also check in the BIOS, under the IPMI log. WHS will see all of 4GB in this server, but no more since it is based on 32-bit Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition.

[theseal]

the log is terrible... I am use to linux...

I have 9000 events in the syslog, not anyone mention SATA or SCSI, but there are events that I deem disk related.

The most "popular" entry is plugplaymanager warning and info.

Looking for 4GB's of RAM...

Also, any tips on how I should setup the torrent-disk? Not included in the pool, but mounted as another drive?

[wardog]

Not included in the pool, but mounted as another drive?

Exactly. Just make sure to add it as a NON-Pooled drive, then rejigger your torrent program accordingly.

Afterward you should notice some improvement in the servers responsiveness.

[theseal]

supercool, now I have some things to fiddle about w.


Also, in TaskManager I see searchinder.exe hog up approx 130MB's of memory, and it says it is indexed and all is well.. Why??

Also #2, in Disk Management I notice Disk0 (sysdrive) having 18MB/s of traffic, all other drives silent.. why? (I am pretty sure its not the torrents since I am monitoring the traffic there simultaneously)

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

Yeah, search indexer is a resource hog.

As for disk management, it displays access, not necessarily write. Could just be the system and searchindexer.

[Mysticcal]

Exactly. Just make sure to add it as a NON-Pooled drive, then rejigger your torrent program accordingly.

Afterward you should notice some improvement in the servers responsiveness.

Would it be advisable to use the system drive as a temporary save location and use utorrents "move files here after download completes feature"?

[Evaders99]

That's what I use. It works fine

[theseal]

ok, 3GB's of RAM, WHS still suck!!

Squeezeboxserver now works fine and almost as good as on my ANCIENT Debian dual PIII machine, the epic bad performance was sorted out by the memory-upgrade.

Now is the small matter of HD-streaming.
Demigrator seeems to be the bad boy here, demigrator.exe is constantly hogging up between 10-90% of processor and from the googleing i've done it seems to be a non resolved general problem.

ooh, this powersucks.. I'm going Debian here really soon, if I dont get any really smart tips....