Posts Tagged ‘NAS’

Synology NAS and SSD Cache Part II – Is cache better for Plex Media Server ?

Sunday, April 10th, 2016

In my recent article comparing the performance of the addition of a Read and Write SSD Cache to a volume on a Synology NAS, I started to look in detail at whether this cache benefits any other services on a Synology NAS running DSM 5.2.

In this experiment I’m looking at the Plex Media Server, and I’ve setup two identical Synology NAS, running DSM 5.2 Build 5644 Update 5, both with Plex Media Server 0.9.15.2.1663, both are streaming the same 1080P Blue Ray movie to the same Plex client via WiFi, at the same time. The first NAS has no cache, the second NAS has 120GB of read and write cache, and these are the results.

The second NAS with the read and write cache enabled shows, lower Disk Utilization 1% compared to 5%.

Again you can see here, 6% (no cache), 1% (cache)

The same stats from both NAS, No cache and cache enabled, what is interesting is the CPU load results are lower on the cache enabled version!

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Synology NAS and SSD Cache

Saturday, April 9th, 2016

I’ve been recently experimenting with SSDs (solid state disks), to accelerate my spinning rust in my Synology NAS.

Recently in DSM, a new SSD cache option is available, which allows you to create a read or write cache with 1 or 2 SSD devices respectively.

Here are some results, which I’ve graphed

2016-04-09-21_26_42-microsoft-excel-book5

In my very quick and crude tests, I could see an improvement in Writing to the NAS, which doubles in performance. Read speed is very similar, and the cache was “warmed-up” before testing.

And here’s a video of the new Synology SSD Cache Read Hit Rate graphic, which looks a little graphic equalizer, from the 70-80s, so I’ve dropped a music track in the background! I thought it only right to over-flange (distort!) the track, so you may want to turn down your volume!

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Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Winchester Disk Drive, Hard disk drive, Hard disc drive, HDD or ‘that big box under the desk‘ (which is the answer I often get!) or I’ve got 500GB of memory or is that disk! I don’t know!

it’s what makes most computers go, most of the time, and if they go bad or stop working, so does your computer usually!

A number of years ago (7 years), I always used Western Digital hard disk drives (HDDs) but after a spate of failures with the new (at the time) WDC WD1200JB, the JB features a 7200 RPM spindle speed coupled with three 40 GB platters. The JB’s key feature, is its 8-meg buffer, four times that of competing drives at the time. An ATA-standard 3-year warranty backs the drive.

But after many of these failed, I decided to switch to Seagate Technology, backed by a 5 Year Warranty, and hard drive manufacturer I’d not used for many years.

The hard drive manufaturer market has certainly got smaller over the last 20 years, many names have disappeared, Connor, DEC, Fujitsu, IBM, Maxtor, Miniscribe and Quantum have disappeared. Quantum acquired DEC, Maxtor acquired Miniscribe and Quantum HDD, Seagate acquired Connor and Maxtor, Hitachi acquired IBM HDD, Toshiba acquired Fujitsu HDD, Western Digital acquired Tandon HDD.

So that leaves us with

  1. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (1967)
  2. Seagate Technology (1979)
  3. Toshiba (1967)
  4. Western Digital (1988)
  5. Samsung (1999?)

So, we still have plenty of HDD manufaturers to choose from!

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500Gbytes ST3500320AS and Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black WD1001FALSq

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500Gbytes ST3500320AS and Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black WD1001FALS

But for me, I’ve decided to go back to purchasing Western Digital Black Drives for the moment, and spread the risk between Seagate for the NASes and Western Digital Black for the workstations!

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Gremlins

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I’ve been suffering a spate of Gremlin attacks…

  1. One of my TiVo’s stopped working.
  2. Alba Freeview Set Top Box wouldn’t turn on.
  3. Two hard disks failed in my production workstation.
  4. One hard disk failed in my NAS.
  5. Engine management on the car, is having an “off” day!

I’ve repaired the TiVo, it needed a new power supply, the Alba STB went in the bin, and I’ve ordered new hard disks for my workstation and NAS.

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