Question Home Server with dual 1 Gbps network connections

[wyliec2]

I have a fundamental question that I think network experts can answer - it takes some background, so apologies for length...

I have a home media server consisting of a Windows Server 2012R2 on a basic Xeon motherboard with dual 1 Gbps RJ45 ports. I always had both connected - they each have their own IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.251 and xxx.xxx.xxx.252. There's no teaming or other specialized configuration on either the server or the switch ports it's connected to.

From a media server standpoint, there's plenty of bandwidth - I can run 3 concurrent 4k streams at 100 Mbps without issue. I'm doing a significant amount of re-encoding videos which typically range from 10 GB to 70 GB. Over my existing network, I typically see speeds of 115 MB/s - largely maxing out the 1 Gbps ethernet connection. I'm looking for a faster connection and 2.5 Gbps seems doable without significant expense.

I was wondering how I could add a 2.5 Gbps adapter to the server so that the two PCs I typically use could transfer these large files faster. I know I'd need a switch with 2.5 Gbps ports as well.

I was trying to figure out I could direct these PC-Server large file transfers to the 2.5 Gbps port that I would add to the server.

I typically connect to the server with the server name, however, I tested setting up two shared folders on a PC with the two independent IP addresses (.251 and .252). What I found was that it didn't matter which folder I copied to, the traffic balanced out over the two server ports - my PC ethernet would be running at 990 MB/s and the two server ports would be running at 440-450 MB/s.

The question (FINALLY!) is if add a 2.5 Gbps router (the two PC's already have 2.5 Gbps ethernet), would I get roughly 2 Gbps transfers to the server since it seems to be splitting the inbound data over the two 1 Gbps server ethernet ports???

There is virtually no other traffic taking place when I'm doing this stuff so 100% of network/switch bandwidth is available when I'm making file transfers.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. I've already tested throughput capability of the RAID 6 array and found it to support sustained writes approaching 400 MB/s - it appears the 1 Gbps network is the only bottleneck preventing me from doubling my transfer speed.

 

[kanewolf]

I have a fundamental question that I think network experts can answer - it takes some background, so apologies for length...

I have a home media server consisting of a Windows Server 2012R2 on a basic Xeon motherboard with dual 1 Gbps RJ45 ports. I always had both connected - they each have their own IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.251 and xxx.xxx.xxx.252. There's no teaming or other specialized configuration on either the server or the switch ports it's connected to.

From a media server standpoint, there's plenty of bandwidth - I can run 3 concurrent 4k streams at 100 Mbps without issue. I'm doing a significant amount of re-encoding videos which typically range from 10 GB to 70 GB. Over my existing network, I typically see speeds of 115 MB/s - largely maxing out the 1 Gbps ethernet connection. I'm looking for a faster connection and 2.5 Gbps seems doable without significant expense.

I was wondering how I could add a 2.5 Gbps adapter to the server so that the two PCs I typically use could transfer these large files faster. I know I'd need a switch with 2.5 Gbps ports as well.

I was trying to figure out I could direct these PC-Server large file transfers to the 2.5 Gbps port that I would add to the server.

I typically connect to the server with the server name, however, I tested setting up two shared folders on a PC with the two independent IP addresses (.251 and .252). What I found was that it didn't matter which folder I copied to, the traffic balanced out over the two server ports - my PC ethernet would be running at 990 MB/s and the two server ports would be running at 440-450 MB/s.

The question (FINALLY!) is if add a 2.5 Gbps router (the two PC's already have 2.5 Gbps ethernet), would I get roughly 2 Gbps transfers to the server since it seems to be splitting the inbound data over the two 1 Gbps server ethernet ports???

There is virtually no other traffic taking place when I'm doing this stuff so 100% of network/switch bandwidth is available when I'm making file transfers.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. I've already tested throughput capability of the RAID 6 array and found it to support sustained writes approaching 400 MB/s - it appears the 1 Gbps network is the only bottleneck preventing me from doubling my transfer speed.

My recommendation would be a switch with 1 or 2 10GE ports. Then put a 10GE card in your server. A multi-gig switch can do 1, 2, 5, or 10GE. Netgear has some like that.

 

[wyliec2]

My recommendation would be a switch with 1 or 2 10GE ports. Then put a 10GE card in your server. A multi-gig switch can do 1, 2, 5, or 10GE. Netgear has some like that.

Thanks for the reply!!

Unfortunately my server is on a mini-itx board with only one PCIE slot which has a RAID card in it.

I either use the two existing 1 Gbps ports or a USB adapter with 2.5 Gbps being most practical. Also, 10 Gbps switches are significantly more expensive. I can get nearly 400 MB/s writing to the server using a USB SSD so 2.5 Gbps shouldn't be an issue bandwidth wise. The two PCs I transfer files from already have 2.5 Gbps ethernet - and I'm never transferring from both PCs to the server at the same time.

So the key question is will using the existing two 1 Gbps ethernet ports give me essentially 2 Gbps throughput when transferring with a 2.5 Gbps network??

 

[bill001g]

It to a point depends on what OS you are running on the server. Most windows installs will not actually let you use 2 different IP.
Even under linux it is tricky to use 2 different IP.

Even then a single file transfer will not use both connections unless you are using something like torrent to do the transfer.

Your best option is to use the 2.5g via USB if that is a option. Be sure to use a USB port that is rated to run that fast.

There is no good method to combine 2 ethernet ports. Things like link aggregation that will combine 2 ethernet ports with a using a special switch only partially works. It will not increase the speed for a single session. What it might do is allow your 2 different machines to each transfer 1gbit BUT you can get unlucky and it puts both on 1 ethernet connection and leaves the other unused.

 

[wyliec2]

It to a point depends on what OS you are running on the server. Most windows installs will not actually let you use 2 different IP.
Even under linux it is tricky to use 2 different IP.

Even then a single file transfer will not use both connections unless you are using something like torrent to do the transfer.

This had been my assumption until I actually tested....

When I do a large file transfer (100 GB) using file explorer, I do see each server ethernet port reporting half of the traffic. My PC (single ethernet port) shows 990 MB/s being sent (maxing out the 1 Gbps) bandwidth.
On the server, the two ethernet ports report receiving data at 440-450 MB/s concurrently - so each is receiving half of the traffic.

This is with the target server folder mapped on the PC to just one of the server IP addresses - this greatly surprised me!!

The server is running Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials with a mini-itx ASRock server mobo with two ethernet ports and an IPMI port. The CPU is a Xeon E3-1246 v3.

There is essentially no other network traffic when I run the test.

I really don't understand how the traffic is being split to the two server ports.

I am going to get a 5-port 2.5 Gbps switch and see what happens - if it does what I hope, it will take the 2.5 Gbps traffic from my PC and the server will receive it as two 1 Gbps which will double the transfer speed....

 

[gggplaya]

PCIe x1 Gen3 is only 1gbps full duplex. If it's a mini itx board and you're using an x1 slot, then all you'll get is 1Gbps no matter what card you put in there.

USB 3.0 is up to 5Gbps, so I would use a USB 3.0 to 2.5Gbe adapter. Be careful which adapter you buy, I have a USB 3.0 to 5gbe adapter and it constantly overheats and drops out. It's really hot to touch. I no longer use them.

 

[palladin9479]

@wyliec2
There is a simple solution to this, especially if the server supports at PCIe x4 slot for a 10Gbps adapter.

5-Port 10G Desktop Switch

As the flagship 10G product, TL-SX105 is a 5-port 10G desktop switch, providing up to 100 Gbps of switching capacity. Reliable, lightning-fast connections and the lowest possible latency make it ideal for gaming and small office and home office use.

www.tp-link.com

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-TL-SX105-Wall-Mount-Protection-Auto-Negotiation/dp/B09CYNHL4S

$270 USD for a 5 port 10Gbe switch, it's the same one I'm using for my home infrastructure that includes ESXi servers and iSCSI over a storage VLAN.

Then you can find a "cheap" Intel X540-t1 or t2 PCI-e NIC for $100~120 USD. Otherwise a TP Link 10Gbe adapter costs $100 USD and is easy to get.

Server bandwidth problem solved with only the client side left, you can buy more NIC's if you want the desktop to use those speeds.

 

[wyliec2]

Interesting results....

After installing a 2.5 Gbps switch ($168 for an 8-port) and connecting the two server LAN ports (1 Gbps each) and my PC which has a mobo supporting up to 5 Gbps ethernet, I was getting 1.2 - 1.3 Gbps from the PC and the two server ports were each getting half the traffic. So with this configuration, I was getting somewhat better than the .975 Gbps with 1 Gbps switch.

I did get an ASUS 2.5 Gbps USB 3.1 adapter for $30. The server has USB 3.0 ports and I've tested with a portable SSD connected via USB and got near 400 MB/s transfer to the RAID 6 array.

With all 3 server LAN ports connected to the 2.5 Gbps switch, it would sometimes spread the traffic across all three ports and sometimes all of the traffic would go to the 2.5 Gbps USB adapter.

I wound up putting the two original 1 Gbps ports back on the original 1 Gbps switch and connecting the USB 2.5 Gbps port to the 2.5 Gbps switch to which my PC is connected. This configuration seems to keep all PC-Server traffic on the 2.5 Gbps LAN. Copying files from the server to PC I'm only getting 1.3-1.4 Gbps speeds but copying from PC to the server, I'm getting 2.3 -2.4 Gbps speeds. Copying files to the server is my primary use case and so far this looks great!!

I should mention that the PC source/destination files are on NVMe SSDs, so that is not a limiting factor.

Also, the TP-Link switch claims 2.5 Gbps with Cat 5e and above. I tested using the ethernet wiring in my house which is 5e and did get 2.5 Gbps connectivity. It appears this is working out as well as I could have expected!!