Multi-Client Access - NAS Environment

We configured three of the HGST Deskstar NAS drives in a RAID-5 volume in the QNAP TS-EC1279U-SAS-RP. A CIFS share in the volume was subject to some IOMeter tests with access from up to 25 VMs simultaneously. The following four graphs show the total available bandwidth and the average response time while being subject to different types of workloads through IOMeter. IOMeter also reports various other metrics of interest such as maximum response time, read and write IOPS, separate read and write bandwidth figures etc. Some of the interesting aspects from our IOMeter benchmarking run are available here.

HGST Deskstar NAS Multi-Client CIFS Performance - 100% Sequential Reads


 

HGST Deskstar NAS Multi-Client CIFS Performance - Max Throughput - 50% Sequential Reads


 

HGST Deskstar NAS Multi-Client CIFS Performance - Random 8K - 70% Reads


 

HGST Deskstar NAS Multi-Client CIFS Performance - Real Life - 60% Random 65% Reads


We see that the sequential accesses are still limited by the network link, but, this time, on the NAS side. On the other hand, our random access tests show markedly better performance for the 7200 rpm drives. The HGST Deskstar NAS manages to almost reach the performance levels of the Seagate Enterprise Capacity v4 and the WD Red Pro at a much lower price point. There is only a slight premium over the WD Red and the Seagate NAS HDD, but the performance for simultaneous multi-client use-cases with non-sequential workloads is much better.

Single Client Access - NAS Benchmarks RAID-5 Benchmarking - Miscellaneous Aspects
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  • cen - Saturday, November 22, 2014 - link

    Bought 4 of these for my home NAS and they really are great for the price. The only negative thing is the noise.. I wouldn't have 4 of these in my room for sure.
  • Laststop311 - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    I use a 2TB version of this drive in 1 of my pc's and I don't notice any offending noise. The case does have noise dampening foam all around it and the hard drive is elastically suspended and isolated from the frame but I use all noctua fans and a fanless psu so if the HDD was making a lot of noise it should be audible. Maybe it's just your set up. You need to properly suspend the drive off the case with rubber so no vibrations are transferred to the case which is the main cause of noise.
  • Laststop311 - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    Maybe the GPU drowns it out but even when the GPU is not in use i still don't hear the HDD even with large file transfers with no gpu activity
  • cen - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    You only use a single one, I have 4 of these. This is a big difference.
  • ddriver - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    Well, you do have an even number of disks, arrange them the right way and their noise will cancel out ;)
  • melgross - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    That would be nice, if it actually worked.
  • ddriver - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    Yeah, except it would generate extra heat. If the drives operate in synchrony theoretically they could be arranged in such a manner that their noise cancel out, but it be quite the feat of engineering. It would be tremendously easier to simply dampen and absorb the noise.
  • Zertzable - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link

    Is that why datacenters are so quiet? ;)
  • jota83 - Monday, November 24, 2014 - link

    I am getting 60 of those by the end of the week :) Let's see how they perform within a JBOD (Quanta M4600H)
  • NightShade00013 - Saturday, January 16, 2016 - link

    I just got done doing a burn in with five of these for my FreeNAS and inside a 4U sitting on my kitchen table the fans were louder than the drives by far. The case is a rosewill RSV-L4500, the two rear 80mm fans have been changed out to PWM fans but the 120's are the ones that came with the case. Not that it's loud at all but the drives were the least on my mind.

    Burn test was done with BadBlocks and took about 65 hours to run completely. Running a smart long test now and that is the only thing that is a little different. Drives are ranging from 548 minutes to 582 minutes to complete.

    Got the drives for less than a 4TB WD Red (not the pro version) so I am loving it. Still need to get two more to finish out my pool but RaidZ3 should be great with a set of seven drives.

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