Benchmarks

Network Transfer Speeds of the Sheeva- and the Guruplug

Most interessting for me is the network performance. computingplugs.com has some early benchmarks. Here are some values for my setup.

Setup

Sheevaplug running Ubuntu 9.04 with Kernel 2.6.31-rc5. Attached is an external 2.5" USB Harddisk (Maxtor 320GB, OneTouch 4 Mini) with a cheap USB Hub in between. USB Disk is ext4.

Main System is running Ubuntu and connected to the Sheevaplug using the Gigabit Switch of a WRT610N Router.

I run most tests reading one Gigabyte of data from /dev/zero in 4K blocks. (dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 of=/dev/zero). Network tests are performed using either netcat or an nfs mount.

I now also have a guruplug (nicknamed heater) with an external eSata enclosure. Running Debian Lenny with Kernel 2.6.34.1. Attached is an external 2.5" eSata Drive (WDC WD6400BPVT). Filesystem is still ext4.

Summary

Test            To Sheeva    From Sheeva      To Guru     From Guru
------------------------------------------------------------------
Local I/O       809.0 MB/s   809.0 MB/s      
Local Disk       31.0 MB/s    32.9 MB/s      66.0 MB/s    74.0 MB/s
Wirespeed        83.0 MB/s    38.3 MB/s      60.7 MB/s    31.7 MB/s
Network Disk     31.0 MB/s    26.7 MB/s      31.0 MB/s    23.0 MB/s
NFS Disk         24.0 MB/s    21.2 MB/s      33.6 MB/s    43.0 MB/s

Tests

Sheevaplug local

IO Speed

root@sheeva# dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 of=/dev/zero.

809 MB/s (807 MB/s; 810 MB/s; 811 MB/s)

Local Disk Speed

root@sheeva# dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 of=/media/max320/binary.dat

Sheeva 31 MB/s (30.3 MB/s; 32.1 MB/s; 30.6 MB/s)

Guru 66 MB/s (67.9 MB/s; 65.4 MB/s; 65.5 MB/s)

root@sheeva# dd of=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 if=/media/max320/binary.dat

Sheeva 32.9 MB/s (32.8 MB/s; 32.9 MB/s; 32.9 MB/s)

Guru 74 MB/s (73.8 MB/s; 75.5 MB/s; 75.5 MB/s)

Network Speed

Using netcat to transport data

root@sheeva# nc -l -p 2000 >/dev/zero
root@master# dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 | nc sheeva 2000

Sheeva 83 MB/s (83.3 MB/s; 82.9 MB/s; 83.0 MB/s)

Guru 60.7 MB/s (60.7 MB/s; 60.4 MB/s; 61.0 MB/s)

root@master# nc -l -p 2000 >/dev/zero
root@sheeva# dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 | nc master 2000

Sheeva 38.3 MB/s (37.8 MB/s; 38.3 MB/s; 38.7 MB/s)

Guru 31.7 MB/s (31.7 MB/s; 31.9 MB/s; 31.5 MB/s)

Why so much worse?

Using netcat to transport data and writing it to disk.

root@sheeva# nc -l -p 2000 >/media/max320/binary.dat
root@master# dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 | nc sheeva 2000

Sheeva 31 MB/s (31.2 MB/s; 31.0 MB/s; 30.7 MB/s)

Guru 31 MB/s (30.8 MB/s; 32.7 MB/s; 30.3 MB/s)

root@master# nc -l -p 2000 >/dev/zero
root@sheeva# dd if=/media/max320/binary.dat bs=4096 count=262144 | nc master 2000

Sheeva 26.7 MB/s (25.5 MB/s; 27.3 MB/s; 27.3 MB/s

Guru 23.0 MB/s (22.7 MB/s; 23.2 MB/s; 23.1 MB/s

Using NFS

root@master# dd if=/dev/zero bs=4096 count=262144 of=/media/sheeva/max320/binary.dat

Sheeva 24.0 MB/s (24.0 MB/s; 23.9 MB/s; 24.0 MB/s)

Guru 33.6 MB/s (33.1 MB/s; 33.6 MB/s; 34.0 MB/s)

root@master# dd if=/media/sheeva/max320/binary.dat bs=4096 count=262144 of=/dev/zero

Sheeva 21.2 MB/s (21.2 MB/s; 21.2 MB/s; 21.3 MB/s)

Guru 43.0 MB/s (42.1 MB/s; 43.3 MB/s; 43.5 MB/s)

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