[OVHelp]

Not a complete novice when it comes to these sorta things. All my testing has been done in a freshly rebooted environment, with all additional services/apps switched off.

ONLY thing up is a screen with rTorrent running.

I'm going to reformatt tonight fresh, Raid0 HDDs again and install latest rTorrent - and thats it. If that fails, I might have to contact OVH further for a possible switch in Servers to see if that is the issue.

Unless anyone can point any changes they have done/seen work. I have gone through HUNDREDS of mailing lists, forums etc to try and sort this out to no avail - most suggest just an overall poor performing Server, and to swap at the end of the billing cycle.

I have even been chatting to the developers of rTorrent and Deluge to try and debug the issue, changed numerous performance increasing options/settings within both programs and it just seems that I just might have a bad egg.

[Andy]

I am in Raid0 mate, if u read my first post I had a very long and tedious trail and error session, and countless hours of searching to find that the EG AMD infact comes with a LSI card, and doesn't work with normal 'Creating Raid0' Guides.

Anyways yes, Im in Raid0 and still being effected.

Yes I know, but if the disks are being used for other things too, that will slow it down, so make sure no other software is running. Etc, your http server, or anything like that. Then test again. Even one piece of software using the disk could reduce the speeds. I've done various tests myself on my home RAID systems.

[OVHelp]

Remember the average 1TB hard drive can only do about 70MB/s, and that's in a linear write mode, not random. Random gets a hell of a lot less in speed.

RAID0 will almost double that speed, but again random will be a lot less. So unless you have RAID0 you'll never hit 1Gbps download speed to the disk, likewise for upload.

I am in Raid0 mate, if u read my first post I had a very long and tedious trail and error session, and countless hours of searching to find that the EG AMD infact comes with a LSI card, and doesn't work with normal 'Creating Raid0' Guides.

Anyways yes, Im in Raid0 and still being effected.

[Andy]

If the server is doing other tasks that may well be the reason the speed is low. That's the reason you got a slow speed from my server, its a production server so its doing a lot of things.

[gigabit]

T'is true, although his 25MBps seems a tad low, but maybe thats just the speed the HDDs get for that kind of usage. I guess the only war forward would be SSDs

[Andy]

Remember the average 1TB hard drive can only do about 70MB/s, and that's in a linear write mode, not random. Random gets a hell of a lot less in speed.

RAID0 will almost double that speed, but again random will be a lot less. So unless you have RAID0 you'll never hit 1Gbps download speed to the disk, likewise for upload.

[OVHelp]

Haha np - well I tested with 5gb file:

226 78.068 seconds (measured here), 62.55 Mbytes per second
5120000000 bytes sent in 77.87 secs (64207.3 kB/s)

So I wld say internal traffic is working fine, just seems to be when HDDs are being thrashed (Uploading, Downloading + Random Accessing of files) sh*t starts hitting the fan.

Which really doesn't suggest any solutions - could be drivers of Nic under pressure start to fail, bad HDDs (I have run Rescue Mode tests, all went well) - any other suggestions?

[gigabit]

Oh yeh... woops... sorted.

[OVHelp]

@Gigabit - can't seem to upload, permissions set mate?

[gigabit]

Try this, gigabit server, raid 0 too: -- removed --

Should get a good speed off that, not much disc activity atm.

[OVHelp]

It was already set up Just not advertised anywhere.

I don't see how a gigabit would help, since you don't get gigabit upload anyway, only 100Mbps.

Internal speeds are the issue mate. This is what I'm trying to get sorted. If its a matter of simply upgrading NIC/Raid Card drivers so be - but bringing it to the attention of OVH.

[Andy]

It was already set up Just not advertised anywhere.

I don't see how a gigabit would help, since you don't get gigabit upload anyway, only 100Mbps.

[OVHelp]

Haha, would be great if we could get a Gigabit test section OVH, or a kind user at that.

@Andy: How did you set that FTP quickly like that, might try and find a mate with a Gigabit and test.

[Andy]

No I'm on 100Mbps. I wondered why my server lagged a bit

[OVHelp]

RAID0 should be twice the speed of RAID1...

Running anything under Wine will be more resource intensive since its not native and won't be as optimised as running on a Windows system.

Exactly - so that is why I can't fathom what is going on.

Just uploaded a couple files to the test ftp (thanks Andy) - are you on a Gigabit?

My results for uploading a 245mb file was: 256000000 bytes sent in 106.81 secs (2340.6 kB/s)

That cldn't be right...?

[Andy]

RAID0 should be twice the speed of RAID1...

Running anything under Wine will be more resource intensive since its not native and won't be as optimised as running on a Windows system.

[OVHelp]

There was a thread on here about optimizing uTorrent for the best performance, do a quick search and follow the tut, then post the results.

Also you really can't blame the server for this as you had broken up the raid array yourself which isn't recommended, so if you reinstall the server (as a last resort to check the hdd) and keep the RAID1 array intact you should definitely get better results.

I don't believe the Raid Array is fixed upon a Reformat is it? And how can you say that a Raid1 can out perform a Raid0 - goes against all proof, and even then reasoning behind Raid0.

Surely running Wine+uTorrent on Debian is MUCH much more heavier then running a simple ncurse client like rTorrent (thus why I choose it).

[Andy]

All servers are in a rack with other servers, and you're connected to a rack switch at your port speed. That rack switch is then connected to the backbone at several gigabits and via several redundant links. There won't be lack of bandwidth, I can tell you that much.

ftp://uploadtest:uploadtest@91.121.17.201

Try that for upload testing.

[DedicatedPros]

There was a thread on here about optimizing uTorrent for the best performance, do a quick search and follow the tut, then post the results.

Also you really can't blame the server for this as you had broken up the raid array yourself which isn't recommended, so if you reinstall the server (as a last resort to check the hdd) and keep the RAID1 array intact you should definitely get better results.

[OVHelp]

When it comes to test the download speed for your server (incoming traffic or "Internet to OVH" bandwidth, you could run this 2 commands and post back the output.

This is a way to test speeds without the overheads of a p2p protocol and the hard drive.

wget ftp://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5...i386-DVD-5.iso -O /dev/null

and

wget ftp://ftp.ovh.net/test.bin -O /dev/null

Let us know about the results.

Thanks for your reply - good to see someone from OVH paying attention to clients.

wget ftp://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5...i386-DVD-5.iso -O /dev/null
--2009-07-29 12:38:02-- ftp://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5...i386-DVD-5.iso
=> `/dev/null'
Resolving cdimage.debian.org... 130.239.18.137, 130.239.18.173, 2001:6b0:e:2018::173, ...
Connecting to cdimage.debian.org|130.239.18.137|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD /debian-cd/5.0.2/i386/iso-dvd ... done.
==> SIZE debian-502-i386-DVD-5.iso ... 1301825536
==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR debian-502-i386-DVD-5.iso ... done.
Length: 1301825536 (1.2G)

100%[================================================== =========================>] 1,301,825,536 39.3M/s in 34s

2009-07-29 12:38:36 (36.6 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [1301825536]

wget ftp://ftp.ovh.net/test.bin -O /dev/null
--2009-07-29 12:39:07-- ftp://ftp.ovh.net/test.bin
=> `/dev/null'
Resolving ftp.ovh.net... 213.186.33.9
Connecting to ftp.ovh.net|213.186.33.9|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD not needed.
==> SIZE test.bin ... 104857600
==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR test.bin ... done.
Length: 104857600 (100M)

100%[================================================== ===========================>] 104,857,600 62.9M/s in 1.6s

2009-07-29 12:39:09 (62.9 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600]

However, as DedicatedPros mentions its not a matter of simple download speed, its a combination of what Bittorrent/Thrashing of HDDs result in.

Its the Upload rate, coupled with the Downloading + Random access of HDDs - resulting in awful performance. Its also concerning since this isn't a simple Kimi, this is a much more sophisticated server, not to mention a hefty price.

Furthermore, one thing that could be an issue is how OVH datacentre is set-out, are racks connected to separate switches, or all into one (I admit I come from no technical background, so lingo is no doubt incorrect)? For example, could my other employees be on a separate rack altogether and as such their internal traffic is superior to me on a separate rack?

Please continue with suggestions.

[DedicatedPros]

Marks, I know you're just trying to help, but those commands are really useless as most people have problems with their upload speed, and testing download speeds is a piece of cake, now if you could provide us with some kind of server to upload data to to test our upload speeds, that would be helpful

[marks]

When it comes to test the download speed for your server (incoming traffic or "Internet to OVH" bandwidth, you could run this 2 commands and post back the output.

This is a way to test speeds without the overheads of a p2p protocol and the hard drive.

wget ftp://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5...i386-DVD-5.iso -O /dev/null

and

wget ftp://ftp.ovh.net/test.bin -O /dev/null

Let us know about the results.

[DedicatedPros]

I'm just going to throw this out there before it turns into a very heated discussion based on very unstable variables, p2p protocol isn't something you can depend on for great speeds, and there is the possibility that you breaking the raid array could have affect the hard drive performance somehow, or the amount of peers connected to your machine. Best check your upload speed using a different protocol, I for one recommend uploading to a Rapidshare collector's account, its free and their German based servers are ridiculously fast

[slayer2005]

Currently have a EG AMD, and having awful speeds when it comes to traffic over Bittorrent (we use BT here at work so as to distribute daily backups, client data etc).

I currently use rTorrent for distribution and am not seeing over 20-25mb/s - not to mention a number of other clients including; Deluge, Transmission, kTorrent and Wine+uTorrent - the highest speed achieved was around 35mb/s in Deluge.

Again, not the speeds I expected from paying the extra over a 100/100mbit.

I have tried NUMEROUS things including:

1. .rtorrent.rc configurations (even IDENTICAL ones from other employees who achieve higher speeds)
2. Played round with /etc/sysctl.conf (adding wmem, rmem and swapiness options) with negative effects.
3. Recompiled the latest kernel
4. Numerous other tweaks/hacks to no avail

For the record I have converted the Raid1 to a Raid0 (Which was a chore in itself due to the lack of details available on these forums - I have a Hardware LSI card).

My next option is looking into upgrading my NIC and Raid drivers - now I have determined from lshw:



and



I have also determined that the latest drivers are:

Realtek - r8168-8.012.00 (yes its a lower version, but date is newer + various issues have been found with r8169). I'm just unsure how to PROPERLY install and delete the older one, there are plenty of threads thru Google BUT nothing matches my environment exactly.

LSI - MPTLINUX_RHEL5_SLES10_PH16-4.18.00.00-1, seems like its the latest, but again unsure how to upgrade from a previous version.

I am running Debian Squeeze - any help on improvements in speed/the above upgrades would be greatly appreciated!

Im going off topic a lil but is there any chance u can post a guide to breaking the raid controller with the new LSI card since you was sucsefull.As there is only the old guides for the old controllers.

[OVHelp]

Currently have a EG AMD, and having awful speeds when it comes to traffic over Bittorrent (we use BT here at work so as to distribute daily backups, client data etc).

I currently use rTorrent for distribution and am not seeing over 20-25mb/s - not to mention a number of other clients including; Deluge, Transmission, kTorrent and Wine+uTorrent - the highest speed achieved was around 35mb/s in Deluge.

Again, not the speeds I expected from paying the extra over a 100/100mbit.

I have tried NUMEROUS things including:

1. .rtorrent.rc configurations (even IDENTICAL ones from other employees who achieve higher speeds)
2. Played round with /etc/sysctl.conf (adding wmem, rmem and swapiness options) with negative effects.
3. Recompiled the latest kernel
4. Numerous other tweaks/hacks to no avail

For the record I have converted the Raid1 to a Raid0 (Which was a chore in itself due to the lack of details available on these forums - I have a Hardware LSI card).

My next option is looking into upgrading my NIC and Raid drivers - now I have determined from lshw:

*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:24:8c:47:0d:72
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI ip=[IP_ADDRESS] latency=0 multicast=yes

and

*-scsi
description: SCSI storage controller
product: SAS1064ET PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS
vendor: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: scsi4
version: 08
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: scsi bus_master cap_list scsi-host
configuration: driver=mptsas latency=0

I have also determined that the latest drivers are:

Realtek - r8168-8.012.00 (yes its a lower version, but date is newer + various issues have been found with r8169). I'm just unsure how to PROPERLY install and delete the older one, there are plenty of threads thru Google BUT nothing matches my environment exactly.

LSI - MPTLINUX_RHEL5_SLES10_PH16-4.18.00.00-1, seems like its the latest, but again unsure how to upgrade from a previous version.

I am running Debian Squeeze - any help on improvements in speed/the above upgrades would be greatly appreciated!