Poor USB performance on N36L Microserver?

[greatwhite]

Hi All,

Is there anyone out there that can give some wisdom on what sort of speeds I should be getting USB2 ports on a HP Microserver? Running a large backup takes days - literally

I get about 8-10MB/s transfer rate, but the drives internal and external are all capable of well over 100MB/s. I accept that in reality, I'll never get 100MB/s because USB2 theoretical limit is 60MB/s (480kbps), so maybe 40-50MB/s? (IIRC, I've seen drives do 50MB/s on other boxes on USB2)

Is this a hardware limit, or a problem with drivers and if so, is it a mission to fix?

Alternately, is a USB3 card an option? (both the slots are open and external drives are USB3). If so, what sort of speed can I get up to then and what card recommendations can anyone make?

Thanks in advance for any inputs

 

[Rickster]

Have you set USB 2.0 in high-speed in the BIOS?

 

[psion]

What OS are you running and what file system is your hard drives using?

 

[greatwhite]

@Rickster - will have a look in the bios, thanks (I wasn't even aware that was an option)

@psion - running WHS2011 - using NTFS

 

[Pada]

32MB/s is roughly the limit that you'll hit on USB 2.0 when transfering large files. When you're transfering small files (say under 50MB), then you most likely won't be getting 32MB/s either.

I'd also suggest that you check your CPU usage when transfering files over USB.

 

[greatwhite]

32MB/s is roughly the limit that you'll hit on USB 2.0 when transfering large files. When you're transfering small files (say under 50MB), then you most likely won't be getting 32MB/s either.

I'd also suggest that you check your CPU usage when transfering files over USB.

I'll have a look at CPU usage, though I don't recall that being an issue (even though it is a weeny CPU).

32MB/s is still more than 3x what I'm getting at the moment and I'll take that if I can get it. I'll test tonight if I get a gap.

Will a usb3 card do any better if the CPU is problem? Also, I know such cards are not all created equal.

 

[gfmalan]

Hi All,

Is there anyone out there that can give some wisdom on what sort of speeds I should be getting USB2 ports on a HP Microserver? Running a large backup takes days - literally

I get about 8-10MB/s transfer rate, but the drives internal and external are all capable of well over 100MB/s. I accept that in reality, I'll never get 100MB/s because USB2 theoretical limit is 60MB/s (480kbps), so maybe 40-50MB/s? (IIRC, I've seen drives do 50MB/s on other boxes on USB2)

Is this a hardware limit, or a problem with drivers and if so, is it a mission to fix?

Alternately, is a USB3 card an option? (both the slots are open and external drives are USB3). If so, what sort of speed can I get up to then and what card recommendations can anyone make?

Thanks in advance for any inputs

I've got myself a low form factor usb3 card, and that solved my issue

 

[greatwhite]

I've got myself a low form factor usb3 card, and that solved my issue

Which one did you get and what sort of speed are you getting out of it?

 

[greatwhite]

Which one did you get and what sort of speed are you getting out of it?

Also, just googling these things, they need a molex or SATA connector for extra power. How did you deal with that on a microserver?

 

[gfmalan]

Which one did you get and what sort of speed are you getting out of it?

USB 2 = 60 MB/s and USB 3 SS = 625MB/s theoretically. USB 3 =480
In the HP there is a AMD sata controller, this and also the external drive type would be your bottleneck.

Real life testing i copy 87-93 MB/s on big files 5gig or bigger, and 120 - 130on smaller files 120mb +/-. The bottleneck in my case is the usb3 enclosure and 2,5" hdd I have. (Small cache on drive) If i replace that with my SSD drive I get much higher transfer rates.

In the OP, the bottleneck would be the external drive, USB2 should give you closer to 45 MB/s real life and teoretical 60MB/s

I bought a no name card from Frontosa, i see comp corp / matrix also sell them. R 200
HP have a nice kit for just under R600, if you know someone, even cheaper
http://www8.hp.com/za/en/products/oas/product-detail.html?oid=5153603

 

[gfmalan]

Also, just googling these things, they need a molex or SATA connector for extra power. How did you deal with that on a microserver?

Ive made my own cable from this, and use the molex provided for the cdrom.
I in anyway installed a small ssd for the OS in the cdrom's place,

 

[greatwhite]

USB 2 = 60 MB/s and USB 3 SS = 625MB/s theoretically. USB 3 =480
In the HP there is a AMD sata controller, this and also the external drive type would be your bottleneck.

Real life testing i copy 87-93 MB/s on big files 5gig or bigger, and 120 - 130on smaller files 120mb +/-. The bottleneck in my case is the usb3 enclosure and 2,5" hdd I have. (Small cache on drive) If i replace that with my SSD drive I get much higher transfer rates.

In the OP, the bottleneck would be the external drive, USB2 should give you closer to 45 MB/s real life and teoretical 60MB/s

I bought a no name card from Frontosa, i see comp corp / matrix also sell them. R 200
HP have a nice kit for just under R600, if you know someone, even cheaper
http://www8.hp.com/za/en/products/oas/product-detail.html?oid=5153603

I know the drives in the microserver are supposed to be able to do read at 150MB/s max, but I doubt the seagate external backup drive can write much above 100MB/s even though it is very new (seagate are terrible for specs availability on their external drives so no idea what it is supposed to be capable of). Real world, if I can get 60MB/s,I'll be happy. If I get in the 90MB/s region that you are getting, I'll be elated.

 

[greatwhite]

I bought a no name card from Frontosa, i see comp corp / matrix also sell them. R 200
HP have a nice kit for just under R600, if you know someone, even cheaper
http://www8.hp.com/za/en/products/oas/product-detail.html?oid=5153603

Was thinking of the d-link, seems to have good reviews. Originally looked at the Transcend unit which was cheap, but many bad reviews. Hp looks nice, but a big premium, just to have hp. All this, because I don't want to wait days for a backup to complete.....

 

[gfmalan]

Was thinking of the d-link, seems to have good reviews. Originally looked at the Transcend unit which was cheap, but many bad reviews. Hp looks nice, but a big premium, just to have hp. All this, because I don't want to wait days for a backup to complete.....

My HP was a NAS device, so the purpose was to transfer data. In the begining, I've used a copy program that can pause and resume, and connect the drives and let it copy from the evening till done. Feel your pain.

USB3 made a huge diffrence. Ive used the network to copy stuff, was quicker than usb...

 

[greatwhite]

My HP was a NAS device, so the purpose was to transfer data. In the begining, I've used a copy program that can pause and resume, and connect the drives and let it copy from the evening till done. Feel your pain.

USB3 made a huge diffrence. Ive used the network to copy stuff, was quicker than usb...

Basically using mine as a NAS/Media server. Has a few small applications running on it too.

I got 29MB/s this morning with different drive, which is a whole better. CPU usage was about 35% during that process, dropping down to approx 5% after. That was on a test write of about 50GB. If I assume CPU usage is equal to data transfer (broad brush), then the unit should easily a USB3 card

 

[greatwhite]

To all that gave input here - thank you.

Took the plunge a few weeks back and got a 2 port USB3 card. Get about 70MB/s average now on big (TB+) backups. CPU load average 70-80%. I think the both CPU and the write speed limit on the attached USB3 HDD will preclude much faster operation than this.