Abysmal Unraid read/write speeds without SSD cache or parity

Kriz · June 20

Hi

I've been running Windows 11 storage server for quite some time now with great results. No problems or data corruption so far (I calculate and verify checksums with a few software solutions) and speeds on both reed and write are good. I had some spare disk laying around so I decided to give an Unraid a go. I used Del Optiplex 9020 with 4th gen i5, Cheiftech 3x HDD hot swap drive cage and a some hard drives (Toshiba n300 6tb, 2x WD Blue EZRZ 4TB a decent CMR ones) and got to work. I had to update bios cause n300 wasn't showing in a bios but it was a relatively easy fix. What I didn't expect was performance. I get about 10 MB/s read and write speed on Unraid array with no cache or parity drives for now (I plan to add parity and SSD cache later down the line). Since there is no parity involved I was expecting pretty much the full performance of the drive I'm writing to. I'm assuming I did something wrong. Assistance would be greatly appreciated !

I'm still evaluating Unraid so I can still build another Windows server.

Thanks in advance for helpful answers.

Electronics Wizardy · June 20

Can you check your network speeds with something like iperf? This feels like a 100mbit link is in the middle.

Kriz · June 20

Damn you are right. I was thinking the same thing but Unraid dashboard is claiming that it has 1Gbps link (I assume to nearby switch) so I didn't dug deeper. Now I have to check my network. Thanks. I report back in a few minutes.

Edit :

Guess I have a faulty ethernet run I need to check up. Since my DNS server was on the other side I guess bandwidth was never an issue until now. When I hoked my new storage box to my main switch speeds jumped up to 80 MB/s write/read cause I use crappy switch (my main server is connected with 10Gbps p2p bridge) so unless I upgrade my network that's fine speeds for now. Sorry for the rookie mistake should've known better.