Windows Performance: CIFS and iSCSI

The single client performance of the 5big NAS Pro unit was evaluated on the Windows platform using Intel NASPT and our standard robocopy benchmark. This was run from one of the virtual machines in our NAS testbed. All data for the robocopy benchmark on the client side was put in a RAM disk (created using OSFMount to ensure that the client's storage system shortcomings wouldn't affect the benchmark results.

LaCie 5big NAS Pro CIFS Performance - Windows

We created a 250 GB iSCSI target and mapped it on the Windows VM. The same benchmarks were run and the results are presented below.

LaCie 5big NAS Pro iSCSI Performance - Windows

In future reviews, we will be presenting results from other NAS units (our plan is to rerun the benchmarks using the new enterprise hard drives) along with the NASPT results (and we will also make sure to update this page with results from them as and when they become available). A single client with one GbE link is not able to saturate the bonded interfaces. To check up on the full power of the link aggregated interface, we have to look at the multi-client performance benchmark.

LaCie's Hybrid Cloud - Wuala and a LaCie NAS in One Interface Multi-Client Performance Benchmarks
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  • klassobanieras - Thursday, January 31, 2013 - link

    A personal bugbear I have with NAS reviews (one that is apparently shared by no-one else in the world): How about evaluating the reliability side of things in a bit more depth?

    What happens when you yank a disk in the middle of a metadata-heavy write?
    What happens when you yank the power-cord in the middle of a metadata-heavy write?
    What happens when an HDD in a RAID set is silently corrupted? (simulated by, say, mounting it under Linux and flipping some bits)
    What happens if the box breaks and you want to get your data off the disks?
    What's the underlying file-system?
    Does it scrub the disks?

    If I just wanted to know how friendly the GUI is, I'd be reading CNET ;)
  • me_too - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link

    I'm very interested in this NAS and I would like to read as many previews as I can before it hits the stores here in The Netherlands. Thanks for Part I :-)
  • me_too - Sunday, February 24, 2013 - link

    More questions...

    Why does Lacies harddrive compatibilitiy list not have Western Digital RED series drives on it? I asked them about these drives and the 5Big NAS Pro and they said they can only guarantee listed harddrives to work properly, they could not tell if they tested these drives at all.

    Strangly the WD GREEN drives are listed, but online I keep reading about many problems with these drives in a NAS due to acessive head parking. Will this not be the case when used in a 5Big NAS Pro?

    When can we expect Part II of the review? :-)
  • NVISION - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - link

    Only if there would Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interface connectivity, along with RAID10 - it would be perfect. For my use anyways :)

    If there would be Thunderbolt connectivity and ability to that interface use most of the systems resources, this product would suite the needs of both high performance users as well as an NAS solution.

    RAID10 would be great, also on marketing viewpoint as many users prefer RAID10 over RAID6 or at least would like to have that as an option.
  • ejunyhu - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link

    what is the vga port for? can you connect a monitor and get config&monitoring display?
  • bobasaur - Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - link

    I read elsewhere that the VGA port is for seeing boot up sequence & settings, useful during disaster recovery.
  • bobasaur - Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - link

    can't wait for part 2!
  • xpro - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link

    I've been holding my breath, I look like a smurf.
  • bobasaur - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - link

    I'm an honorary smurf now too
  • Bob38489 - Monday, July 15, 2013 - link

    With regards to the choice of drives, what drives are reliable? It seems many internal drive reviews on amazon report having multiple drives bought in one go fail on their nas. This shows up under the one star ratings for the seagate barracuda, wd red green and black. Why such high failure rates?

    Is there a good drive to use on a nas, without going for the WD RE Enterprise drive? I don't really need too much performance, just high reliability for moderate cost.

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