After waiting for a few months, I finally upgraded my main storage server from TureNAS core to TureNAS Scale during my server upgrade. Now I am asking myself, do I really need this upgrade?
I have had a storage server upgrade last few weeks, and just did some IO benchmark in my hypervisor.
I am using VMware ESXi as my hypervisor on a dedicated machine. it hooks on my Truenas Scale storage server with a 10G iSCSI connection and standard 1500 MTU (no jumble frame.)
Tests are performed with fio, and Google provides a simple guideline for VM disk IO benchmark https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/benchmarking-pd-performance
Test write throughput by performing sequential writes with multiple parallel streams (8+), using an I/O block size of 1 MB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
sudo fio --name=write_throughput --directory=$TEST_DIR --numjobs=8 \--size=10G --time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio \--direct=1 --verify=0 --bs=1M --iodepth=64 --rw=write \--group_reporting=1
# sudo fio --name=write_throughput --directory=$TEST_DIR --numjobs=8 \--size=10G --time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio \--direct=1 --verify=0 --bs=1M --iodepth=64 --rw=write \--group_reporting=1
write_throughput: (g=0): rw=write, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, 
1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=64
...
fio-3.19
Starting 8 processes
write_throughput: Laying out IO file (1 file / 10240MiB)
write_throughput: Laying out IO file (1 file / 10240MiB)
write_throughput: Laying out IO file (1 file / 10240MiB)
write_throughput: Laying out IO file (1 file / 10240MiB)
write_throughput: Laying out IO file (1 file / 10240MiB)
Jobs: 7 (f=7): [W(4),_(1),W(3)][52.5%][w=64.9MiB/s][w=64 IOPS][eta 00m:58s]
write_throughput: (groupid=0, jobs=8): err= 0: pid=2502: Thu Jun 16 17:30:06 2022
write: IOPS=224, BW=229MiB/s (240MB/s)(13.7GiB/61466msec); 0 zone resets
slat (usec): min=47, max=1918.2k, avg=22289.12, stdev=138620.30
clat (msec): min=19, max=49855, avg=1843.07, stdev=5712.01
lat (msec): min=176, max=50052, avg=1865.65, stdev=5811.18
clat percentiles (msec):
| 1.00th=[ 180], 5.00th=[ 184], 10.00th=[ 300], 20.00th=[ 735],
| 30.00th=[ 776], 40.00th=[ 793], 50.00th=[ 827], 60.00th=[ 860],
| 70.00th=[ 919], 80.00th=[ 1301], 90.00th=[ 1569], 95.00th=[ 2072],
| 99.00th=[17113], 99.50th=[17113], 99.90th=[17113], 99.95th=[17113],
| 99.99th=[17113]
bw ( KiB/s): min=28617, max=1160657, per=100.00%, avg=252403.65, stdev=41662.93, samples=472
iops : min= 21, max= 1129, avg=240.85, stdev=40.74, samples=472
lat (msec) : 20=0.01%, 100=0.01%, 250=9.83%, 500=0.87%, 750=13.68%
lat (msec) : 1000=53.79%, 2000=18.23%, >=2000=5.37%
cpu : usr=0.20%, sys=0.38%, ctx=13534, majf=0, minf=467
IO depths : 1=0.0%, 2=0.0%, 4=0.0%, 8=0.1%, 16=0.6%, 32=1.2%, >=64=98.1%
submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
complete : 0=0.0%, 4=99.9%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.1%, >=64=0.0%
issued rwts: total=0,13827,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0
latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=64
Run status group 0 (all jobs):
WRITE: bw=229MiB/s (240MB/s), 229MiB/s-229MiB/s (240MB/s-240MB/s), io=13.7GiB (14.8GB), run=61466-61466msec
Disk stats (read/write):
dm-0: ios=0/16134, merge=0/0, ticks=0/12396824, in_queue=12396824, util=99.90%, aggrios=0/16134, aggrmerge=0/1, aggrticks=0/12424846, aggrin_queue=12424845, aggrutil=99.87%
sda: ios=0/16134, merge=0/1, ticks=0/12424846, in_queue=12424845, util=99.87%
[[email protected] Data]#
Test write IOPS by performing random writes, using an I/O block size of 4 KB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
sudo fio --name=write_iops --directory=$TEST_DIR --size=10G \--time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio --direct=1 \--verify=0 --bs=4K --iodepth=64 --rw=randwrite --group_reporting=1
[[email protected] ~]# clear
[[email protected] ~]# sudo fio --name=write_iops --directory=$TEST_DIR --size=10G \
> --time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio --direct=1 \
> --verify=0 --bs=4K --iodepth=64 --rw=randwrite --group_reporting=1
write_iops: (g=0): rw=randwrite, bs=(R) 4096B-4096B, 4096B-4096B, (T) 4096B-4096B, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=64
fio-3.19
Starting 1 process
fio: io_u error on file /Data/fiotest/write_iops.0.0: No space left on device: write offset=303255552, buflen=4096
fio: pid=2596, err=28/file:io_u.c:1803, func=io_u error, error=No space left on device
write_iops: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err=28 (file:io_u.c:1803, func=io_u error, error=No space left on device): pid=2596: Thu Jun 16 17:32:46 2022
write: IOPS=60.0k, BW=238MiB/s (250MB/s)(5709MiB/23972msec); 0 zone resets
slat (usec): min=3, max=36791, avg= 8.45, stdev=39.28
clat (usec): min=184, max=177493, avg=1040.16, stdev=2205.25
lat (usec): min=198, max=177499, avg=1048.82, stdev=2206.88
clat percentiles (usec):
| 1.00th=[ 635], 5.00th=[ 717], 10.00th=[ 750], 20.00th=[ 799],
| 30.00th=[ 832], 40.00th=[ 857], 50.00th=[ 889], 60.00th=[ 922],
| 70.00th=[ 963], 80.00th=[ 1020], 90.00th=[ 1139], 95.00th=[ 1647],
| 99.00th=[ 3294], 99.50th=[ 4686], 99.90th=[ 9765], 99.95th=[ 15008],
| 99.99th=[160433]
bw ( KiB/s): min=82464, max=294088, per=100.00%, avg=245998.02, stdev=67413.87, samples=47
iops : min=20616, max=73522, avg=61499.38, stdev=16853.44, samples=47
lat (usec) : 250=0.01%, 500=0.01%, 750=9.57%, 1000=67.11%
lat (msec) : 2=18.91%, 4=3.75%, 10=0.55%, 20=0.05%, 50=0.02%
lat (msec) : 100=0.01%, 250=0.02%
cpu : usr=14.15%, sys=45.55%, ctx=156240, majf=0, minf=68
IO depths : 1=0.0%, 2=0.0%, 4=0.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=100.0%
submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
issued rwts: total=0,1461581,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0
latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=64
Run status group 0 (all jobs):
WRITE: bw=238MiB/s (250MB/s), 238MiB/s-238MiB/s (250MB/s-250MB/s), io=5709MiB (5987MB), run=23972-23972msec
Disk stats (read/write):
dm-0: ios=0/1592185, merge=0/0, ticks=0/1429699, in_queue=1429699, util=99.56%, aggrios=0/1591823, aggrmerge=0/362, aggrticks=0/1422162, aggrin_queue=1422162, aggrutil=99.56%
sda: ios=0/1591823, merge=0/362, ticks=0/1422162, in_queue=1422162, util=99.56%
[[email protected] ~]#
Test read throughput by performing sequential reads with multiple parallel streams (8+), using an I/O block size of 1 MB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
sudo fio --name=read_throughput --directory=$TEST_DIR --numjobs=8 \
--size=10G --time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio \
--direct=1 --verify=0 --bs=1M --iodepth=64 --rw=read \
--group_reporting=1
[[email protected] ~]# sudo fio --name=read_throughput --directory=$TEST_DIR --numjobs=8 \
> --size=10G --time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio \
> --direct=1 --verify=0 --bs=1M --iodepth=64 --rw=read \
> --group_reporting=1
read_throughput: (g=0): rw=read, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, 1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=64
...
fio-3.19
Starting 8 processes
Jobs: 2 (f=2): [_(1),R(2),_(5)][100.0%][r=14.0GiB/s][r=15.3k IOPS][eta 00m:00s]
read_throughput: (groupid=0, jobs=8): err= 0: pid=1881: Thu Jun 16 17:48:29 2022
read: IOPS=21.4k, BW=20.9GiB/s (22.4GB/s)(1259GiB/60292msec)
slat (usec): min=13, max=76074, avg=197.95, stdev=422.19
clat (nsec): min=1404, max=693868k, avg=23722148.51, stdev=59989033.56
lat (usec): min=86, max=693925, avg=23920.38, stdev=60025.44
clat percentiles (msec):
| 1.00th=[ 12], 5.00th=[ 12], 10.00th=[ 12], 20.00th=[ 12],
| 30.00th=[ 12], 40.00th=[ 13], 50.00th=[ 13], 60.00th=[ 13],
| 70.00th=[ 13], 80.00th=[ 13], 90.00th=[ 13], 95.00th=[ 14],
| 99.00th=[ 342], 99.50th=[ 347], 99.90th=[ 384], 99.95th=[ 414],
| 99.99th=[ 456]
bw ( MiB/s): min=18584, max=26532, per=100.00%, avg=21483.09, stdev=176.33, samples=954
iops : min=18579, max=26529, avg=21478.41, stdev=176.35, samples=954
lat (usec) : 2=0.01%, 4=0.01%, 10=0.01%, 100=0.01%, 250=0.01%
lat (usec) : 500=0.01%, 750=0.01%, 1000=0.01%
lat (msec) : 2=0.01%, 4=0.01%, 10=0.07%, 20=96.31%, 50=0.02%
lat (msec) : 250=0.01%, 500=3.57%, 750=0.01%
cpu : usr=0.82%, sys=49.54%, ctx=41872, majf=0, minf=466
IO depths : 1=0.0%, 2=0.0%, 4=0.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=100.0%
submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.1%, >=64=0.0%
issued rwts: total=1288207,0,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0
latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=64
Run status group 0 (all jobs):
READ: bw=20.9GiB/s (22.4GB/s), 20.9GiB/s-20.9GiB/s (22.4GB/s-22.4GB/s), io=1259GiB (1351GB), run=60292-60292msec
Disk stats (read/write):
dm-0: ios=47642/87, merge=0/0, ticks=15825386/36345, in_queue=15861731, util=100.00%, aggrios=47652/75, aggrmerge=1189/12, aggrticks=15817689/23298, aggrin_queue=15840987, aggrutil=100.00%
sda: ios=47652/75, merge=1189/12, ticks=15817689/23298, in_queue=15840987, util=100.00%
[[email protected] ~]#
Test read IOPS by performing random reads, using an I/O block size of 4 KB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
sudo fio --name=read_iops --directory=$TEST_DIR --size=10G \
--time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio --direct=1 \
--verify=0 --bs=4K --iodepth=64 --rw=randread --group_reporting=1
[[email protected] ~]# sudo fio --name=read_iops --directory=$TEST_DIR --size=10G \
> --time_based --runtime=60s --ramp_time=2s --ioengine=libaio --direct=1 \
> --verify=0 --bs=4K --iodepth=64 --rw=randread --group_reporting=1
read_iops: (g=0): rw=randread, bs=(R) 4096B-4096B, 4096B-4096B, (T) 4096B-4096B, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=64
fio-3.19
Starting 1 process
read_iops: Laying out IO file (1 file / 10240MiB)
fio: ENOSPC on laying out file, stopping
Jobs: 1 (f=1): [r(1)][100.0%][r=1061MiB/s][r=272k IOPS][eta 00m:00s]
read_iops: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=1913: Thu Jun 16 17:50:33 2022
read: IOPS=271k, BW=1057MiB/s (1108MB/s)(61.9GiB/60001msec)
slat (nsec): min=1569, max=697200, avg=2087.86, stdev=1413.17
clat (usec): min=2, max=11769, avg=233.84, stdev=26.11
lat (usec): min=5, max=11886, avg=236.04, stdev=26.43
clat percentiles (usec):
| 1.00th=[ 182], 5.00th=[ 204], 10.00th=[ 217], 20.00th=[ 225],
| 30.00th=[ 225], 40.00th=[ 227], 50.00th=[ 229], 60.00th=[ 233],
| 70.00th=[ 237], 80.00th=[ 243], 90.00th=[ 260], 95.00th=[ 273],
| 99.00th=[ 330], 99.50th=[ 359], 99.90th=[ 441], 99.95th=[ 562],
| 99.99th=[ 816]
bw ( MiB/s): min= 946, max= 1085, per=100.00%, avg=1058.05, stdev=22.12, samples=119
iops : min=242382, max=277826, avg=270859.52, stdev=5662.33, samples=119
lat (usec) : 4=0.01%, 10=0.01%, 20=0.01%, 50=0.01%, 100=0.01%
lat (usec) : 250=85.50%, 500=14.43%, 750=0.05%, 1000=0.02%
lat (msec) : 2=0.01%, 4=0.01%, 10=0.01%, 20=0.01%
cpu : usr=48.33%, sys=51.25%, ctx=281, majf=0, minf=58
IO depths : 1=0.0%, 2=0.0%, 4=0.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=100.0%
submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.1%, >=64=0.0%
issued rwts: total=16234920,0,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0
latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=64
Run status group 0 (all jobs):
READ: bw=1057MiB/s (1108MB/s), 1057MiB/s-1057MiB/s (1108MB/s-1108MB/s), io=61.9GiB (66.5GB), run=60001-60001msec
Disk stats (read/write):
dm-0: ios=2831/16, merge=0/0, ticks=1340/15, in_queue=1355, util=6.47%, aggrios=2833/10, aggrmerge=0/6, aggrticks=1338/9, aggrin_queue=1346, aggrutil=6.45%
sda: ios=2833/10, merge=0/6, ticks=1338/9, in_queue=1346, util=6.45%
[[email protected] ~]#
Yesterday, I was check my home network regularly and see a message of possible to upgrade my Ubiquity Cloud Key to version 6. But unfortunately lost all configuration after the upgrade.
I bought a Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+ several years ago and use as my main router at home. It was relatively quiet with lower load when put on a shelf, but after I move to the new apartment and put it into a network cabinet, the noise was much higher especially in hot summer. So I decided to replace the factory fan with something quilter.
It seems there is something wrong with my Plex Media Server today, I can not see any new item after the library scan, although logs show plex do have access to those files in the console.
Title Photo by Magnus Engø on Unsplash
Group your equipment together, make sure you can access most of your equipment at the same location at the same time. This will reduce lots of effort when tracing an unknown device issue – you don’t have to run between different places.
You can have your equipment group in two or three locations, but you should not put them everywhere at home, except some special network device such as WiFi access point, or communication device, for example, VoIP phone.
The system should be located on a fixed location at home. Depends on the country you located, house structure you stay and types of equipment you have, the location of your home lab can be different.
Choose good locations is one of the most challenge part of your home lab setup. there are many variables have to consider
First of all, there must be a power source close to your homelab device. it is not a good idea of running long extension power cable without a certified electrician. Using extension power cable with high power equipment can be a fire hazard with, and not secured cable can cause accidents.
Provide dedicated circuit and power lets for your equipment if possible. Do not share a circuit with other high power electrical appliances such as air-conditioning, electrical oven or electrical heater. You don’t want your server lost power because of an overcurrent or short circuit in a different room far from your homelab.
Make sure you have enough existing network cable access to your homelab location. You should also have a backup line for your core network in case of a cable problem.
Evaluate your cable for future upgrade, for example, it will be very difficult to run a 10G network on a CAT5e cable. Consider the difference between a copper-based network or a fibre-based network, and which type of network your device supports.
Many enterprise equipments are designed for running inside a server room or datacenter, in most of the cases server noise is not a concern. Several new server models from HP and DELL is much quieter than before, but running noise may sill too loud for most of the people, especially at night.
Homelab equipment consumes electric and produces heat. Now new server cloud operates under higher environment temperature such as 28 Celsius, but some parts such as hard-drive may lose service life.
Heat can also cause server fan running at very high speed, and cause extra noise. We are human, we can not work in an extremely hot environment.
You should keep enough workspace for your homelab and make sure all equipment is easy to access. This should including enough spaces when not maintain your server and when you are moving your equipment.
Most servers are flat and long, they may difficult to go through narrow corner or doors. A full hight server cabinet can easily over 2 meter high, which makes them not fit in some basement or attic.
Servers are generally made by steal, which means they are heavy, very heavy. An empty 2U DELL or HP rack server can be easily over 20+ kg without any hard drive installed. Fully loaded 4U storage boxes can be heavy as 50+ kg, and you need at least 2 person to move those boxes, or using lift equipment. so make sure you still have space for your friends and carry equipment for your server.
A fully loaded 42U server cabinet can be heavy as 2000 kg, with footage less than 2 square meters. make sure your floor support a heavy load, and not make holes on it.
There are some commonplace for your homelab. they have different pros and cons.
Pros: This could be the best place for your home lab.
Cons: This could be the most expensive plan.
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You can have your equipment in different place of your home, for example, I have my network gear in a small network cabinet just above the front door and my main servers located in a larger cabinet in my study room.
Be in a fixed location not means you can not move them. You can have your server sets on a cabinet with wheels, or have a cluster of Raspberry Pi on a box you can move from one place to another. but your homelab equipment should not like your laptop or iPad that you can take where you goes to.
Use server cabinet or rack can significantly make your homelab clean and make your device easily accessible because most of the industry equipment is design for rack mount.
But use or not use a server cabinet can depend on type and quantity of the equipment you have. For user with several heavy server and equipment, use standard server cabinet cloud be a better decision. The smaller size network rack is also a good choice for network device only user.
Need Not to Know 