NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hi

Which version of NFS does NASLite+ use? Could not find any ref.

What is the rsize/wsize?

Just bought the NASLite+ version, so that I can get some more throughput (dma), and run SMB and NFS at the same time. Will test it tonight, I'll be back with a status rapport.

Tried out the NASLite-NFS floppy yesterday, on an old Intel mobo, 333MHz CPU and 300+ something MB RAM, 3COM NIC, Samsung 160GB HD. It just works as it should, but the speed is only around 2.* MB/s, which is acceptable for smaller files, but I have to transfer several hundreds of GB, which I have stored on the old NFS server. Will eventually add two more 120GB harddrives, when I have copied the content.


I really like the concept of this project, there is just one thing which I would like to do, that is to make the NASLite+ boot from CF, like I do with my firewall. I succeeded in making DSL (damn_small_linux) boot from a 512 MB CF, with a CF-2-IDE adaptor, but thats another story.

Another point is to boot from a USB stick, which will free up an IDE port. I will look into this when I have some more time.

I will mainly use the NFS for PVR recorder storage (Mpeg2), and it works ok, no problems with my test yesterday, there is just one thing which concerns me, that is the 5 min. status update. Will that affect the flow from the PVR, which can record for hours? I have set the PVR to split the recordings into 1GB files.

So, thank you for your time, and not the least, for NASLite+

/Flemming

Hello FAF,

NASLite+ uses the kernel NFS server facilities and supports v2 and v3. I don’t remember off-hand, but I think the kernel adjusts rsize and wsize per the client with 32K being max.

The floppy Mbit support is slow due to the generic IDE driver used. The NASLite+ kernel uses much better IDE support, so there shouldn’t be a transfer issue. One thing to consider is after initial boot the HDs are set to perform an extended SMART self test, that may take an hour for a 160G drive. During that test, you’ll be able to read and write, but performance may be inconsistent. Verify the test is finished (Info/Disk-X) before benchmarking.

We are working on USB Flash and CFD/HDD versions of NASLite+, and those should be out soon. The current implementation uses a floppy for configuration due to the bootable CD. That will not be necessary if the system is on a flash device, but some things need to change in order for NASLite to work properly on a flash.

The 5 minute system info update shouldn’t be a problem, given the amount of RAM that you have. The buffers at that point should be sufficient, if at all necessary.

Thanks for the support and let me know how it works out.

Thank you for your reply.

I have just setup the CD-ROM version, and it all looks very nice indeed. Around 7 MB/s is the current transfer rate, not bad for a 100 Mb/s Ethernet and the present specs of the machine.

I have a 3COM switch attached, which is not top of the line, the buffer is very small. The NIC in the old NFS, which I'm transferring from, is a 8139 RTL, so that might not utilize the full bandwidth of the system, the architecture of the chip/driver is low-end, no doubt, but nonetheless it has served me well. I will eliminate the old NFS when it's done copying, and build a game-pc for my son.

As for the r/w_size, the old client size I used was 4096/8192, anything other than that didn't work properly, from the PVR to the NFS. But with NASLite (floppy Mbit) as the server, the recording/playback actually worked ok with 8192/8192, much more fluent than the old NFS, which was a 900 MHz, ATA100, etc. Could be the 8139 which was the culprit. Nonetheless, the NASLite simply runs fine, for that purpose. Now with the + version, I have a nice NAS for the local lan as well.

I look forward to see the progress of this project.


/Flemming

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Server System Log

* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer syslog.info syslogd started: BusyBox v1.00-pre10 (2004.06.01-20:52+0000)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer daemon.info init: Starting pid 256, console /dev/null: '/sbin/klogd'
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer syslog.notice klogd: klogd started: BusyBox v1.00-pre10 (2004.06.01-20:52+0000)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Linux version 2.4.27.NASLite (root@stimpy) (gcc version 3.3.2) #8 Sat Jan 1 11:12:55 MST 2005
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 0000000018000000 (usable)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.notice klogd: 384MB LOWMEM available.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: On node 0 totalpages: 98304
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: zone(0): 4096 pages.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: zone(1): 94208 pages.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: zone(2): 0 pages.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Kernel command line: rw root=/dev/ram0 initrd=NASLite.02 BOOT_IMAGE=naslite.01
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Initializing CPU#0
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Detected 333.353 MHz processor.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Calibrating delay loop... 665.19 BogoMIPS
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Memory: 384792k/393216k available (1412k kernel code, 8036k reserved, 372k data, 508k init, 0k highmem)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Buffer cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: CPU: L2 cache: 512K
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.debug klogd: CPU: After generic, caps: 0183f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.debug klogd: CPU: Common caps: 0183f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: CPU: Intel Pentium II (Deschutes) stepping 01
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Checking for popad bug... OK.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfdc9c, last bus=1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PCI: Using configuration type 1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PCI: Probing PCI hardware
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX/ICH [8086/7110] at 00:07.0
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Initializing RT netlink socket
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: Starting kswapd
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: devfs: boot_options: 0x1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Real Time Clock Driver v1.10f
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: FDC 0 is a National Semiconductor PC87306
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 5.2.52-k3
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Copyright (c) 1999-2004 Intel Corporation.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: dgrs: SW=$Id: dgrs.c,v 1.13 2000/06/06 04:07:00 rick Exp $ FW=Build 550 11/16/96 03:45:15
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: FW Version=$Version$
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0d.0
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: 3c59x: Donald Becker and others. http://www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: See Documentation/networking/vortex.txt
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: 00:0d.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xfc00. Vers LK1.1.18-ac
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: 00:01:03:bb:59:d2, IRQ 11
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: product code 4b51 rev 00.13 date 11-15-00
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.debug klogd: Internal config register is 1800000, transceivers 0xa.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: 8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/Autonegotiate interface.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: MII transceiver found at address 24, status 782d.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: 00:0d.0: scatter/gather enabled. h/w checksums enabled
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: pcnet32.c:v1.30c 05.25.2004 tsbogend@alpha.franken.de
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: ThunderLAN driver v1.15
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: TLAN: 0 devices installed, PCI: 0 EISA: 0
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: dmfe: Davicom DM9xxx net driver, version 1.36.4 (2002-01-17)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: ns83820.c: National Semiconductor DP83820 10/100/1000 driver.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: sk98lin: No adapter found.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version 0.25.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PIIX4: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:07.1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PIIX4: chipset revision 1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfcd0-0xfcd7, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfcd8-0xfcdf, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: hda: SAMSUNG SP1614N, ATA DISK drive
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: 95Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: hdc: CD-ROM CDU711, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: hda: attached ide-disk driver.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: hda: host protected area => 1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: hda: 312581808 sectors (160042 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63, UDMA(33)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Partition check:
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.notice klogd: RAMDISK: NASLite file system found at block 0
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: <6>Freeing initrd memory: 1285k freed
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.warn klogd: VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Mounted devfs on /dev
* Feb 11 18:45:20 DreamServer user.info klogd: Freeing unused kernel memory: 508k freed

Initial test with transfer rates....

FTP= 11.5 MB/s steady (1 GB file)
Http= 7-4 MB/s (1 GB file)
NFS to NFS= 7 MB/s top (40 GB files)

If I can trust the transfer-metering?

Could not see the files (755) with XP on the SMB?

Recording from PVR to NAS works very very nice and smooth (1 GB/hour file).

/FAF

ok....

I did a 644 on the files on NASLite+, and I can see them on XP SMB. They where 755 before, so they obviously need a 644 in order to show up in XP.

/FAF

That's strange. You should still be able ro read and write since it's the same user. I'll take a look at that.