harryd: 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Backup FreeNAS using rsync to a rsync-server

It is a little bit difficult to find out how to backup data from a FreeNAS-Server to a different rsync-server. In my case I have a QNAP TS-209 configured as a rsync-server. To this NAS device, I want to backup my data once a day.

The trick is to use the LOCAL rsync configuration of FreeNAS. The rsync-server is here called 'soulcube'.

I've configured four backup jobs. Here is the example of my photo share.

Source share - the_directory_you_want_to_backup

Destination share - servername::rsync_share

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

FreeNAS 0.7 (rev. 3953) and ZFS

I've tried to use with the latest Nightly Buid of FreeNAS 0.7 (rev. 3953) ZFS. Unfortunately I was not able to import my ZFS-Pool.

The error message just showed the following...

kernel: KLD zfs.ko: depends on opensolaris - not available

Currently there is no solution for this problem :-(

See this FreeNAS forum post.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Jonas left me a comment here about strange write performance of his FreeNAS 0.7.

Jonas said...
Im haveing issues with performance on raidz for Freenas. Right now i have four 500GB disks in a raidz1 pool.

Trying to dd 1GB file to my pool is only giving a write performance of 47MB/s. If i test one single disk with diskinfo -tv i get write 48-82MB.

After some private mail and some testing, we've found out that this has something to do with the dd options Jonas used.

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=mytestfile.out bs=1000 count=1000000
1000000+0 records in
1000000+0 records out
1000000000 bytes transferred in 21.231106 secs (47100702 bytes/sec)

Around 47 MB/s for a very performant system is not enough (AMD Athlon x2 64 Bit 4200+, 2200 MHz, 2 GByte RAM, 4x 500 GB Harddisks configured as RAIDZ1)

Speed of a single disk was measured with diskinfo

freenas:/mnt/Media# diskinfo -tv ad4
ad4
512 # sectorsize
500107862016 # mediasize in bytes (466G)
976773168 # mediasize in sectors
969021 # Cylinders according to firmware.
16 # Heads according to firmware.
63 # Sectors according to firmware.
ad:S13TJ1MQ702083 # Disk ident.

Seek times:
Full stroke: 250 iter in 5.368466 sec = 21.474 msec
Half stroke: 250 iter in 3.997566 sec = 15.990 msec
Quarter stroke: 500 iter in 6.592644 sec = 13.185 msec
Short forward: 400 iter in 2.437786 sec = 6.094 msec
Short backward: 400 iter in 1.262446 sec = 3.156 msec
Seq outer: 2048 iter in 0.251187 sec = 0.123 msec
Seq inner: 2048 iter in 0.243935 sec = 0.119 msec
Transfer rates:
outside: 102400 kbytes in 1.245477 sec = 82217 kbytes/sec
middle: 102400 kbytes in 1.417240 sec = 72253 kbytes/sec
inside: 102400 kbytes in 2.351795 sec = 43541 kbytes/sec

This looks OK. So whats the problem?

It is the blocksize (bs) dd used to write the testfile! It's just 1000 Bytes!

Use higher numbers and a 'binary prefix' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix). I mean something like 512k, 1024k, 2048k, 4096k, 8192k.

Jonas repeated the test with the following results:

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=8192k count=100
100+0 records in
100+0 records out
838860800 bytes transferred in 5.715633 secs (146766032 bytes/sec)

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=4096k count=200
200+0 records in
200+0 records out
838860800 bytes transferred in 5.663804 secs (148109079 bytes/sec)

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=2048k count=200
200+0 records in
200+0 records out
419430400 bytes transferred in 3.429654 secs (122295248 bytes/sec)

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=1024k count=200
200+0 records in
200+0 records out
209715200 bytes transferred in 0.357848 secs (586045588 bytes/sec) << To little data gives strange result. Probably because of HD cache.

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=512k count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
524288000 bytes transferred in 2.576585 secs (203481736 bytes/sec)

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=256k count=10000
10000+0 records in
10000+0 records out
2621440000 bytes transferred in 16.343732 secs (160394212 bytes/sec)

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=25k count=100000
100000+0 records in
100000+0 records out
2560000000 bytes transferred in 20.552446 secs (124559383 bytes/sec)

So, it depends how you measure the performance ;-)

Benchmarking FreeNAS WritePerformance

Jonas left me a comment here about strange write performance of his FreeNAS 0.7.

Jonas said...
Im haveing issues with performance on raidz for Freenas. Right now i have four 500GB disks in a raidz1 pool.

Trying to dd 1GB file to my pool is only giving a write performance of 47MB/s. If i test one single disk with diskinfo -tv i get write 48-82MB.

After some private mail and some testing, we've found out that this has something to do with the dd options Jonas used.

freenas:/mnt/Media# dd if=/dev/zero of=mytestfile.out bs=1000 count=1000000
1000000+0 records in
1000000+0 records out
1000000000 bytes transferred in 21.231106 secs (47100702 bytes/sec)

Around 47 MB/s for a very performant system is not enough (AMD Athlon x2 64 Bit 4200+, 2200 MHz, 2 GByte RAM, 4x 500 GB Harddisks configured as RAIDZ1)

Speed of a single disk was measured with diskinfo

This looks OK. So whats the problem?

It is the blocksize (bs) dd used to write the testfile! It's just 1000 Bytes!

Use higher numbers and a 'binary prefix' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix). I mean something like 512k, 1024k, 2048k, 4096k, 8192k.

Jonas repeated the test with the following results:

So, it depends how you measure the performance ;-)

BackupPC on FreeNAS - Part 3 (Issues with Samba)

I've showed you in two posts how to install BackupPC on FreeNAS (BackupPC on FreeNAS & BackupPC on FreeNAS - Part 2)

It looks like that there is a problem with samba if you install it as I've described this in my previous posts. The FreeNAS binaries are compiled with different path-settings as the original pkg's from FreeBSD.

So if you do not need samba, don't install the packages! Skip the following steps:

freenas:~# pkg_add -r net/samba-libsmbclient-3.0.28

freenas:~# pkg_add -r net/samba-nmblookup-3.0.28.tbz

freenas:~# pkg_add -r net/samba-3.0.28,1

If you need samba, please be aware that you might see some problems!

One issue I've seen is that the /var/etc/private/smbpasswd file was not updated during the boot. My workaround is to add the following in /etc/rc.d/smbpasswd:

(/bin/echo "${_password}"; /bin/echo "${_password}") | ${command} -c /var/etc/smb.conf -s -a "${_username}" > /dev/null

Can anyone confirm similar problems?

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I am running FreeNAS 0.7 (rev. 3514) since several weeks as my 'production' server at home on a Mini-ITX Atom based system (see FreeNAS 0.7 on a Intel D945GCLF).

I've done some tuning of FreeBSD and ZFS with good experiences (good performance, no panics, etc.).

Here is what I've done...

First of all it is important to 'tune' ZFS. I've seen some panics of my systems without using this parameters. It is necessary to use lots of RAM for ZFS. I have 2GB in my little server...

I've followed the FreeBSD ZFSTuning Guide and added the following lines to the /boot/loader.conf file

vm.kmem_size_max="1073741824"

vm.kmem_size="1073741824"

vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable=1

I am not sure about the vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable=1, but as I said, my experiences are good with this settings.

Editing of the /boot/loader.conf file is easy :-) Use your Web-GUI, go to -> Advanced -> Edit File -> add /boot/loader.conf to the File path and hit Load. Add the lines to that file and hit the Save Button.

Please be aware that these changes are not saved to the 'XML system configuration' (-> System -> Backup/Restore -> Download configuration).

FreeBSD tuning... I've simply used the 'Tuning' of FreeNAS. You can find that also on your Web-GUI.

Go to -> System -> Advanced -> mark the Tuning Box and hit Save.

And last but not least there are some nice tuning variables to be found on the TCP Tuning Guide for FreeBSD (here http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html or here http://fasterdata.es.net/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html)

Add this variables via -> System -> Advanced -> sysctl.conf

Here are the variables in detail:

# ups spinup time for drive recognition

hw.ata.to=15

# System tuning - Original -> 2097152

kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=16777216

# System tuning

kern.ipc.nmbclusters=32768

# System tuning

kern.ipc.somaxconn=8192

# System tuning

kern.maxfiles=65536

# System tuning

kern.maxfilesperproc=32768

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.inflight.enable=0

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.path_mtu_discovery=0

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.recvbuf_auto=1

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.recvbuf_inc=16384

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.recvbuf_max=16777216

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65536

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.sendbuf_auto=1

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.sendbuf_inc =8192

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536

# System tuning

net.inet.udp.maxdgram=57344

# System tuning

net.inet.udp.recvspace=65536

# System tuning

net.local.stream.recvspace=65536

# System tuning

net.local.stream.sendspace=65536

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.sendbuf_max=16777216

I would really appreciate any comments about this tuning variables!

Tuning FreeNAS & ZFS

I am running FreeNAS 0.7 (rev. 3514) since several weeks as my 'production' server at home on a Mini-ITX Atom based system (see FreeNAS 0.7 on a Intel D945GCLF).

I've done some tuning of FreeBSD and ZFS with good experiences (good performance, no panics, etc.).

Here is what I've done...

First of all it is important to 'tune' ZFS. I've seen some panics of my systems without using this parameters. It is necessary to use lots of RAM for ZFS. I have 2GB in my little server...

I've followed the FreeBSD ZFSTuning Guide and added the following lines to the /boot/loader.conf file

vm.kmem_size_max="1073741824"

vm.kmem_size="1073741824"

vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable=1

I am not sure about the vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable=1, but as I said, my experiences are good with this settings.

Please be aware that these changes are not saved to the 'XML system configuration' (-> System -> Backup/Restore -> Download configuration).

FreeBSD tuning... I've simply used the 'Tuning' of FreeNAS. You can find that also on your Web-GUI.

Go to -> System -> Advanced -> mark the Tuning Box and hit Save.

Add this variables via -> System -> Advanced -> sysctl.conf

Here are the variables in detail:

# ups spinup time for drive recognition

hw.ata.to=15

# System tuning - Original -> 2097152

kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=16777216

# System tuning

kern.ipc.nmbclusters=32768

# System tuning

kern.ipc.somaxconn=8192

# System tuning

kern.maxfiles=65536

# System tuning

kern.maxfilesperproc=32768

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.inflight.enable=0

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.path_mtu_discovery=0

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.recvbuf_auto=1

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.recvbuf_inc=16384

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.recvbuf_max=16777216

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65536

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.sendbuf_auto=1

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.sendbuf_inc =8192

# System tuning

net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536

# System tuning

net.inet.udp.maxdgram=57344

# System tuning

net.inet.udp.recvspace=65536

# System tuning

net.local.stream.recvspace=65536

# System tuning

net.local.stream.sendspace=65536

# http://acs.lbl.gov/TCP-tuning/FreeBSD.html

net.inet.tcp.sendbuf_max=16777216

I would really appreciate any comments about this tuning variables!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

What to do with a QNAP TS-209? Install a REAL Linux... Install Debian...

I have a QNAP TS-209 at home, but I am not really happy with it. One of my concerns is security. With the firmware I've used (2.0.1 Build 0324T) there was a massive security hole.

The file .ssh/authorized_keys will be overwritten on ach reboot, with an unknown user (admin@Richard-TS209). See authorized_keys oerwritten at reboot.

I am not sure if QNAP has fixed this issue with the new Firmware, but this showed me, that my QNAP is not the device where I've want to store my private data.

Some time ago I've read a Post that Martin Michlmayr is working on a QNAP-Port of debian. See more details abount Martin on his website and on wikipedia.

Now it is possible on an easy way to install debian on your QNAP. See here is Martins description. Read carefully!

I want to show you here my experiences with Debian on my QNAP TS-209

The first step is to create a backup of the original Firmware

cd /share/HDA_DATA/public

cat /dev/mtdblock1 > mtd1

cat /dev/mtdblock2 > mtd2

Save these both files to a USB-Stick or download them to your workstation!

Now download the required installer images

wget http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/armel/images/daily/orion5x/netboot/qnap/ts-209/flash-debian

wget http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/armel/images/daily/orion5x/netboot/qnap/ts-209/initrd.gz

wget http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/armel/images/daily/orion5x/netboot/qnap/ts-209/kernel

Run the following script to write the kernel and the initrd.gz to flash

sh flash-debian

This will take some time...

Writing debian-installer to flash... done.

Please reboot your QNAP device.

When you've rebooted the TS-209, you can login via ssh. The Firmware will configure the IP-Address via DHCP or if no DHCP-Server is available, it will fallback to 192.168.1.100.

ssh installer@192.168.1.238 (Password in install)

Here are the screenshots of the installer

Choose a mirror

Choose your language

I want to use the Manual Parttioning method

After setting up the partitions, creating the Filesystem, the installer start the installation of the base system.

Setting up users and passwords

I just want to install the standard software and configure the system later

It will take some time to install the software

Flash memory will be configured

The installation is complete!

After the reboot you are able to login via ssh...

Installing Debian on QNAP TS-209