ONTAP Discussions

expected performance from CIFS (throughput)?

m_lubinski
27,254 Views

I have a question about CIFS from Netapp filers. When I enable CIFS on my vfilers, I get strange low throughput from CIFS (from clients). Like for instance: copying folder containing 20k small files (for website) from CIFS to local disk (on dedicated windows 2008 r2 server) goes with speed ~1.5MB/s even less (drops to 400k/s). First I thought it's because of small files, but I did a test with the same folder, with 2 physical servers (windows 2008 r2) over unc shares - there was throughput of 15MB/s constantly (so 10x more).

Ok, disks are shared for different things as well (14x SATA disks in aggregate) used for NFS as well, but their load is avg 60% (each disk), so even though it should give much better performance...

I am confused about this speed, and what should be expected in that setup. Someone could say: change to FC disks, but still these 2 physical servers also have sata disks inside, and then copying just performs normally (as it should).

Can anyone point me to right direction of this, or even better - what should be expected from CIFS over Netapp? Maybe 1.5MB with small files is max what Netapp can push?

BTW, I did a test with bigger file as well (2GB) and copying was going 20MB/s (so better, but still didn't max 1Gbit connection)... And the same file (2gb) went between 2 servers with speed 100MB/s

I hope someone can help with that thing...

24 REPLIES 24

thomas_feely
25,638 Views

Hello there,

I have seen some horrendous performance with CIFS and filers and am currently still trying to nail down an issue where an lacp vif has 15Mb/s to some servers while a multimode works fine, doesnt help load balancing at all. One thing to check (if you can) is change the mode if you are using lacp. SMB2 is disabled by default on filers, turning that on will give you a boost for 2008R2. increasing the cifs tcp window size can increase performance in some circumstances as well.

NetApp have told me in previous support calls regarding CIFS that NetApps implementation of CIFS doesn't match microsoft's and not to expect the same speed, but with SMB2 and a chunky R710 with a decent intel card can pull at 100MB/s (on a good day without lacp turned on, or with if I'm very lucky)

lwei
25,638 Views

I just read this post now. Are you still having issue with CIFS performance? If so, please collect perfstat. 1.5MB/s seems too low.

Thanks,

Wei

rohland
25,638 Views

Have you done any testing to verify that your NIC is configured properly? Depending on what type of NIC you are using (PCI vs onboard) that could be your issue.

dahleihel
26,224 Views

we are having similar issues. the cifs latency is low. but even when the system isn't used heavily we still can't seem to pass the 30MB/s mark.

i sent a perfstat in the past and they said everything looks good.

lwei
26,224 Views

which version of ONTAP are you using? I think perfstat would still be useful. Thanks,   -Wei

dahleihel
26,224 Views

using 7.3.5.1

i'm discussing with my colleagues on enabling smb2 (we have mixed windows environment) and increat tcp window size(still reading on this).

i'm waiting for a colleage to come back from vacation before i do the next perfstat as he is likely to do a lot of data moves/copy

lwei
26,224 Views

Great. These are good steps. There are some parameters in the controller you can tune. Thanks,   -Wei

dahleihel
26,223 Views

i'm doing a bit of digging regarding tcp window size.

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3869.pdf tells me to cifs.tcp_window_size, to 2096560

but i can't find anything else on the net about that size. however, i find lots of people using 64240

lwei
26,223 Views

My colleague Chowdary answered the following questions:

  • What's the recommendation for tuning cifs.tcp_window_size?

[Chowdary ] with SMB2 the size is 2MB (2097152)


  • What are the best practices to get good CIFS throughput?

[Chowdary ]       1. enabling SMB 2 on the controller and using SMB 2 enabled clients would give better performance than SMBv1.

                                2. Make sure there is not much latency between the Domain controllers and the controller

                                3. Need to make sure that no stale DCs are listed under the preferred DCs.

dahleihel
17,554 Views

so far we've enabled SMB2 and on XP nothing has changed (expected) but on windows 7 desktops i've noticed read performance increase. almost double in some cases.

the next step is to change the tcp windows size

lwei
16,967 Views

That's great! Thanks,   -Wei

dahleihel
17,555 Views

so i just setup a V3140 with ontap 8.1P1

config:

root vol is on its on RG 2+1 (raid 5) sas drives

aggr1 has 5 LUNs from a 20+2 (raid6) sas RG. each LUN is 2TB (1952GB for HDS. based on NetApp doc)

results:

defaultmtu 9000tcp 64240notes
xp1m19s1m5s1m10ssmb2 enabled
xp1m6s1m4s1m14smpx 1124
xp1m8s1m4s1m5sbuf 64k
472 files
w748s42s40s20 folders
w742s41s40ssize on disk 2.39 GB (2,571,423,744 bytes)
w748s40s42svalues are in time
time is not exact (+/- 2s)
w2k827s27s31sdesktops limited to 1g link
w2k829s30s31s
w2k828s26s27s

is this a normal performance expectation?

on a windows 7 with SSD i was able to get 100MB/s performance (so basicaly maxing out the 1gb/s link of the switch)

on w2k8 with a RAID5 (not sure # of disks) i would get the same about

the peak it ever reached was 130MB/s and that didnt last long (this was tested on a single 8GB file)

brauntvr2swiss
16,579 Views

Hi Wei

Its over a year you make following statement:

with SMB2 the size is 2MB (2097152)

In the TR-3869 the value is 2096560. Which one is now correct or it doesn't matter which value I take?

Thanks

Thomas

lwei
15,221 Views

Hi Thomas,

We are talking about small detail here. But I believe TR-3869 is correct. Please reference Microsoft KB on TCP window size (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=224829). Let's say the intention is to set the tcp_window_size to 2MB, or 2097152 bytes. According to Q224829, the Scale Factor is 5 and Window Scaled is 2097120. However, the TCP packet size is 1460 bytes and we want the tcp_window_size to be an even multiple of the packet size, thus, 2096560.

Thanks,

Wei

brauntvr2swiss
15,221 Views

Hi Wei

Thanks for your quick answer and your explanantions.. I Know its a small detail, but sometimes such things can have a significant impact.

Thats why I wanna be sure I set the right values..

regards and a nice weekend

Thomas

lwei
15,221 Views

Good point. I agree. Have a nice weekend,   -Wei

NETMAGDAVE
17,553 Views

This might be of some help. I found it over here:

Checklist for troubleshooting CIFS issues

• Use "sysstat –x 1" to determine how many CIFS ops/s and how much CPU is being utilized

• Check /etc/messages for any abnormal messages, especially for oplock break timeouts

• Use "perfstat" to gather data and analyze (note information from "ifstat", "statit", "cifs stat", and "smb_hist", messages, general cifs info)

• "pktt" may be necessary to determine what is being sent/received over the network

• "sio" should / could be used to determine how fast data can be written/read from the filer

• Client troubleshooting may include review of event logs, ping of filer, test using a different filer or Windows server

• If it is a network issue, check "ifstat –a", "netstat –in" for any I/O errors or collisions

• If it is a gigabit issue check to see if the flow control is set to FULL on the filer and the switch

• On the filer if it is one volume having an issue, do "df" to see if the volume is full

• Do "df –i" to see if the filer is running out of inodes

• From "statit" output, if it is one volume that is having an issue check for disk fragmentation

• Try the "netdiag –dv" command to test filer side duplex mismatch. It is important to find out what the benchmark is and if it’s a reasonable one

• If the problem is poor performance, try a simple file copy using Explorer and compare it with the application's performance. If they both are same, the issue probably is not the application. Rule out client problems and make sure it is tested on multiple clients. If it is an application performance issue, get all the details about:

  • ◦ The version of the application
  • ◦ What specifics of the application are slow, if any
  • ◦ How the application works
  • ◦ Is this equally slow while using another Windows server over the network?
  • ◦ The recipe for reproducing the problem in a NetApp lab

• If the slowness only happens at certain times of the day, check if the times coincide with other heavy activity like SnapMirror, SnapShots, dump, etc. on the filer. If normal file reads/writes are slow:

  • ◦ Check duplex mismatch (both client side and filer side)
  • ◦ Check if oplocks are used (assuming they are turned off)
  • ◦ Check if there is an Anti-Virus application running on the client. This can cause performance issues especially when copying multiple small files
  • ◦ Check "cifs stat" to see if the Max Multiplex value is near the cifs.max_mpx option value. Common situations where this may need to be increased are when the filer is being used by a Windows Terminal Server or any other kind of server that might have many users opening new connections to the filer. What is CIFS Max Multiplex?
  • ◦ Check the value of OpLkBkNoBreakAck in "cifs stat". Non-zero numbers indicate oplock break timeouts, which cause performance problem

Message was edited by: Dave Greenfield

dahleihel
17,553 Views

thats a good checklist but based on what i have seen CIFS in general isn't a fast protocol

NETMAGDAVE
17,553 Views

CIFS has a number of problems, but chattiness has to be the biggest issue by far. By using read ahead and write behinds along with metadata caching CIFS performance can be more than  quintupled  Here's a performance graph from one network I just happened to have . You'll see NetApp / CIFS see the highest reductions of any application and these numbers are probably low, actually. I've seen CIFS reduction of over 96%.

nireusnetapp
16,579 Views

Hello to all,

new to NetApp, I bought recently a FAS2020 with 12x1GB SATA HDD.

I have several CIFS problems, regarding performance, eventhough I have a very small network (80-100 clients and about 20 servers).

I've seen the poor performance in some excel sheets, where calculations are being made, inside nested files (excel which refers to another excel etc..)

In my previous Windows FileServer the calculation took place in about, eg. 15 sec, and now got up to 1min or more !!

Also when I have a cifs share and I'm using it through a Win2003 terminal server, takes too long to open it, and read the files (sometimes up to 30 sec just to open the shared folder !!!)

In my previous windows environment, that action took place immediately ...

Also sometimes when multiple users access a file, I saw some "ghost files" in that folder, with random alphanumeric values , like A02350 (no extension ...) and make the file inaccessible from the 2nd user ... (had to make a copy, and use the copied file instead ....)

The above situations happens all times during the day, and got nothing to do with eg snapshots hours etc.

(I tried stopping the snapshot, but nothing happened ...)

Can anyone suggest anything with these problems ?

I saw some hints in the forum, but I don't know what options/values to edit.

I don't know what option to put on windowsize, and if it is ok to enable/disable oplocks ...

My clients are 90% windows xp, and I'm using a Windows 2003 Active Directory

Ay help would be greatly appreciated ,

Regards,

Panagiotis

PS.  I enclose my cifs stat, and options.cifs values, for any help ....

My CIFS stats are as follows:

**************************************************

nireas1-netapp-up*> cifs stat

reject        0  0%

mkdir        0  0%

rmdir     2957  0%

open        0  0%

create        0  0%

close 25207932 10%

X&close        0  0%

flush   253214  0%

X&flush        0  0%

delete    69843  0%

rename   149527  0%

NTRename        0  0%

getatr     3505  0%

setatr        0  0%

read        0  0%

X&read        0  0%

write    18559  0%

X&write        0  0%

lock        0  0%

unlock        0  0%

mknew        0  0%

chkpth     3505  0%

exit        0  0%

lseek        0  0%

lockread        0  0%

X&lockread        0  0%

writeunlock        0  0%

readbraw        0  0%

writebraw        0  0%

writec        0  0%

gettattre        0  0%

settattre        0  0%

lockingX  1761438  1%

IPC  1028131  0%

open2        0  0%

find_first2  9340863  4%

find_next2    67292  0%

query_fs_info  4044916  2%

query_path_info 32781575 14%

set_path_info        0  0%

query_file_info 14894300  6%

set_file_info 13129809  5%

create_dir2        0  0%

Dfs_referral   595908  0%

Dfs_report        0  0%

echo  1572431  1%

writeclose        0  0%

openX        0  0%

readX 49309904 20%

writeX 37717047 16%

findclose        0  0%

tcon        0  0%

tdis   196739  0%

negprot    84063  0%

login   266793  0%

logout   164204  0%

tconX   232783  0%

dskattr        0  0%

search        0  0%

fclose     1565  0%

NTCreateX 45017423 19%

NTTransCreate        2  0%

NTTransIoctl   725213  0%

NTTransNotify   683162  0%

NTTransSetSec  2621351  1%

NTTransQuerySec   321274  0%

NTNamedPipeMulti        0  0%

NTCancel CN   147226  0%

NTCancel Other       11  0%

SMB2Echo        0  0%

SMB2Negprot        0  0%

SMB2TreeConnnect        0  0%

SMB2TreeDisconnect        0  0%

SMB2Login        0  0%

SMB2Create        0  0%

SMB2Read        0  0%

SMB2Write        0  0%

SMB2Lock        0  0%

SMB2Unlock        0  0%

SMB2OplkBrkAck        0  0%

SMB2ChgNfy        0  0%

SMB2CLose        0  0%

SMB2Flush        0  0%

SMB2Logout        0  0%

SMB2Cancel        0  0%

SMB2IPCCreate        0  0%

SMB2IPCRead        0  0%

SMB2IPCWrite        0  0%

SMB2QueryDir        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileBasicInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileStndInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileIntInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileEAInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileFEAInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileModeInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryAltNameInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileStreamInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryNetOpenInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryAttrTagInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryAccessInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileUnsupported        0  0%

SMB2QueryFileInvalid        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSVolInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSSizeInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSDevInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSAttrInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSFullSzInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSObjIdInfo        0  0%

SMB2QueryFSInvalid        0  0%

SMB2QuerySecurityInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetBasicInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetRenameInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetFileLinkInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetFileDispInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetFullEAInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetModeInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetAllocInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetEOFInfo        0  0%

SMB2SetUnsupported        0  0%

SMB2SetInfoInvalid        0  0%

SMB2SetSecurityInfo        0  0%

SMB2FsctlPipeTransceive        0  0%

SMB2FsctlPipePeek        0  0%

SMB2FsctlEnumSnapshots        0  0%

SMB2FsctlDfsReferrals        0  0%

SMB2FsctlSetSparse        0  0%

SMB2FsctlSecureShare        0  0%

SMB2FsctlFileUnsupported        0  0%

SMB2FsctlIpcUnsupported        0  0%

cancel lock        0

wait lock        0

copy to align   167809

alignedSmall   353803

alignedLarge   187596

alignedSmallRel        0

alignedLargeRel        0

FidHashAllocs      657

TidHashAllocs       47

UidHashAllocs        0

mbufWait        0

nbtWait        0

pBlkWait        0

BackToBackCPWait        0

cwaWait        0

short msg prevent       15

multipleVCs   135226

SMB signing        0

mapped null user        0

PDCupcalls        0

nosupport        0

read pipe busy        0

write pipe busy        0

trans pipe busy        0

read pipe broken        0

write pipe broken        0

trans pipe broken        0

queued writeraw        0

nbt disconnect    66326

smb disconnect    17556

dup disconnect      185

OpLkBkXorBatchToL2   383611

OpLkBkXorBatchToNone       10

OpLkBkL2ToNone    44763

OpLkBkNoBreakAck        2

OpLkBkNoBreakAck95        0

OpLkBkNoBreakAckNT        2

OpLkBkIgnoredAck        0

OpLkBkWaiterTimedOut        0

OpLkBkDelayedBreak        0

SharingErrorRetries     4088

FoldAttempts        0

FoldRenames        0

FoldRenameFailures        0

FoldOverflows        0

FoldDuplicates        0

FoldWAFLTooBusy        0

NoAllocCredStat        0

RetryRPCcollision        0

TconCloseTID        0

GetNTAPExtAttrs        0

SetNTAPExtAttrs        0

SearchBusy        0

ChgNfyNoMemory        0

ChgNfyNewWatch   116806

ChgNfyLastWatch   116793

UsedMIDTblCreated        0

UnusedMIDTblCreated        0

InvalidMIDRejects        0

SMB2InvalidSignature        0

SMB2DurableCreateReceived        0

SMB2DurableCreateSucceeded        0

SMB2DurableReclaimReceived        0

SMB2DurableReclaimSucceeded        0

SMB2DurableHandlePreserved        0

SMB2DurableHandlePurged        0

SMB2DurableHandleExpired        0

SMB2FileDirInfo        0

SMB2FileFullDirInfo        0

SMB2FileIdFullDirInfo        0

SMB2FileBothDirInfo        0

SMB2FileIdBothDirInfo        0

SMB2FileNamesInfo        0

SMB2FileDirUnsupported        0

SMB2QueryInfo        0

SMB2SetInfo        0

SMB2Ioctl        0

SMB2RelatedCompRequest        0

SMB2UnRelatedCompRequest        0

SMB2FileRequest        0

SMB2PipeRequest        0

SMB2nosupport        0

Max Multiplex = 47, Max pBlk Exhaust = 0, Max pBlk Reserve Exhaust = 0

Max FIDs = 452, Max FIDs on one tree = 197

Max Searches on one tree = 6, Max Core Searches on one tree = 0

Max sessions = 91

Max trees = 316

Max shares = 157

Max session UIDs = 3, Max session TIDs = 153

Max locks = 809

Max credentials = 245

Max group SIDs per credential = 14

Max pBlks = 896 Current pBlks = 896 Num Logons = 0

Max reserved pBlks = 32 Current reserved pBlks = 32

Max gAuthQueue depth         = 3

Max gSMBBlockingQueue depth  = 4

Max gSMBTimerQueue depth     = 4

Max gSMBAlfQueue depth       = 1

Max gSMBRPCWorkerQueue depth = 4

Max gOffloadQueue depth      = 2

Local groups: builtins = 6, user-defined = 2, SIDs = 4

RPC group count = 10, RPC group active count = 0

Max Watched Directories = 101, Current Watched Directories = 19

Max Pending ChangeNotify Requests = 102, Current Pending ChangeNotify Requests = 19

Max Pending DeleteOnClose Requests = 2688, Current Pending DeleteOnClose Requests = 0

**************************************************

***************************************************

nireas1-netapp-up*> options cifs

cifs.LMCompatibilityLevel  1         

cifs.audit.account_mgmt_events.enable off       

cifs.audit.autosave.file.extension           

cifs.audit.autosave.file.limit 0         

cifs.audit.autosave.onsize.enable off       

cifs.audit.autosave.onsize.threshold 75%       

cifs.audit.autosave.ontime.enable off       

cifs.audit.autosave.ontime.interval 1d        

cifs.audit.enable            off       

cifs.audit.file_access_events.enable on        

cifs.audit.liveview.allowed_users           

cifs.audit.liveview.enable   off       

cifs.audit.logon_events.enable on        

cifs.audit.logsize           1048576   

cifs.audit.nfs.enable        off       

cifs.audit.nfs.filter.filename           

cifs.audit.saveas            /etc/log/adtlog.evt

cifs.bypass_traverse_checking on        

cifs.client.dup-detection    ip-address

cifs.comment                           

cifs.enable_share_browsing   on        

cifs.gpo.enable              off       

cifs.gpo.trace.enable        off       

cifs.grant_implicit_exe_perms off       

cifs.guest_account                     

cifs.home_dir_namestyle                

cifs.home_dirs_public_for_admin on        

cifs.idle_timeout            900       

cifs.ipv6.enable             off       

cifs.max_mpx                 50        

cifs.ms_snapshot_mode        xp        

cifs.netbios_aliases                   

cifs.netbios_over_tcp.enable off       

cifs.nfs_root_ignore_acl     off       

cifs.oplocks.enable          on        

cifs.oplocks.opendelta       0         

cifs.per_client_stats.enable off       

cifs.perm_check_ro_del_ok    off       

cifs.perm_check_use_gid      on        

cifs.preserve_unix_security  off       

cifs.restrict_anonymous      0         

cifs.restrict_anonymous.enable off       

cifs.save_case               on        

cifs.scopeid                           

cifs.search_domains                    

cifs.show_dotfiles           on        

cifs.show_snapshot           on        

cifs.shutdown_msg_level      2         

cifs.sidcache.enable         on        

cifs.sidcache.lifetime       1440      

cifs.signing.enable          off       

cifs.smb2.client.enable      off       

cifs.smb2.durable_handle.enable on        

cifs.smb2.durable_handle.timeout 16m       

cifs.smb2.enable             off       

cifs.smb2.signing.required   off       

cifs.snapshot_file_folding.enable off       

cifs.symlinks.cycleguard     on        

cifs.symlinks.enable         on        

cifs.trace_dc_connection     off       

cifs.trace_login             off       

cifs.universal_nested_groups.enable on        

cifs.weekly_W2K_password_change off       

cifs.widelink.ttl            10m       

cifs.wins_servers            10.1.1.10 

nireas1-netapp-up*>

****************************************************

Public