[ale] Network Performance Gurus - Question about Ubuntu based NAS

[Greg Freemyer]

Network Guru,

I've done lots of work with 100 Mbit, but not much performance testing
with 1Gbit/sec Ethernet.

I'm looking at the QNAP TS509 NAS unit (reviewed at
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30549/75/1/1/).

It is running Ubuntu internally (customized I'm sure).

Per the last page of the review, it shows max. read throughput at
about 56 MB/sec. (via what client?)

But one gets the impression, that it is the Ethenet link that is
limiting the speed, not the disks/CPU.

And from the post http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=492

One reads that load balancing via LACL (802.3ad) allowed at least one
TS509 user to get 87 MB/sec with a single client workstation.

And with two clients, the user is claiming 62 MB/sec per client simultaneously.

== questions

1) With a single socket, does 1 Gigabit ethernet tend to max out at
only 60MB/sec or so?  Or is that more likely a limitation of a Windows
client PC?

2) If I get a LACL (802.3ad) compliant switch, do I just need 2 cat5
cables from it to my NAS and my client machines get accelerated via a
single gigabit connection?  Is the answer OS dependent?

3.1) In particular, I have a Fedora box I want to connect and get as
much throughput to/from the NAS as possible.  Will I also need to
implement load-balancing on it via LACL?

3.2) And what about XP?  Vista?

4) For my Fedora box, do any of the performance tests even mean
anything for this NAS, since they were testing via Windows clients.

Thanks
-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
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