Score:1

Slow File Transfer Macbook to Synology/Proxmox Server using AFP

jp flag

Noticed slow transfer speeds of ~35 MB/s when sending a single 5 GB file from my Macbook Pro to my NAS running on Xpenology/Synology in a Proxmox VM.

The NAS is first mounted onto the Macbook Pro using AFP over TCP , then the file is dragged and dropped into the mounted drive.

The Proxmox server is connected to a 1G network switch port, and the Macbook Pro is tested over both Wifi 802.11ac and a wired ethernet connection connected to the same network switch. The Xpenology VM uses a RAID-0 ZFS array as its storage which is made up of four 16 TB 5400 rpm HDD.

Do you expected the transfer speeds to be closer to the read speeds of a 5400 rpm drive? I believe this value is around 70-80 MB/s. Furthermore, RAID-0 should make this above 100 MB/s.

Otherwise, how do we troubleshoot the slow transfer speed?

iperf3 Tests

Results with Proxmox as iperf server, Macbook (wifi) as client:

---------------------------------------------
Server listening on 5201
---------------------------------------------
Accepted connection from 192.168.1.138, port 57104
[  5] local 192.168.1.2 port 5201 connected to 192.168.1.138 port 57105
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  36.6 MBytes   307 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  37.7 MBytes   316 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  36.4 MBytes   305 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  36.0 MBytes   302 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  36.6 MBytes   307 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  36.8 MBytes   309 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  36.1 MBytes   303 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  34.7 MBytes   291 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  34.1 MBytes   286 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  30.0 MBytes   252 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]  10.00-10.03  sec   578 KBytes   177 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.03  sec   356 MBytes   298 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Results with Proxmox as the iperf client, Macbook (wifi) as server:

Connecting to host 192.168.1.138, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.2 port 53068 connected to 192.168.1.138 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  12.3 MBytes   103 Mbits/sec   13   50.9 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  13.0 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec   11   35.4 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  10.6 MBytes  89.2 Mbits/sec   13   48.1 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  12.5 MBytes   105 Mbits/sec   10   62.2 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  11.8 MBytes  98.6 Mbits/sec   15   69.3 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  11.1 MBytes  93.1 Mbits/sec   16   63.6 KBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  12.2 MBytes   102 Mbits/sec   15   17.0 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  10.3 MBytes  86.7 Mbits/sec   18   49.5 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  11.2 MBytes  93.6 Mbits/sec   13   45.2 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  10.9 MBytes  91.7 Mbits/sec   19   26.9 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   116 MBytes  97.2 Mbits/sec  143             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   115 MBytes  96.8 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Results with Proxmox as iperf server, Macbook (ethernet) as client:

---------------------------------------------
Server listening on 5201
---------------------------------------------
Accepted connection from 192.168.1.99, port 57137
[  5] local 192.168.1.2 port 5201 connected to 192.168.1.99 port 57138
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  81.7 MBytes   685 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  87.8 MBytes   737 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  87.5 MBytes   734 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  87.1 MBytes   731 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  88.4 MBytes   742 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  86.4 MBytes   725 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  88.2 MBytes   740 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  87.1 MBytes   730 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  86.3 MBytes   724 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  85.5 MBytes   717 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]  10.00-10.01  sec   423 KBytes   653 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   866 MBytes   726 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Results with Proxmox as the iperf client, Macbook (ethernet) as server:

Connecting to host 192.168.1.99, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.2 port 50916 connected to 192.168.1.99 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  77.8 MBytes   653 Mbits/sec   92   28.3 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  87.2 MBytes   732 Mbits/sec   87   29.7 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  87.0 MBytes   730 Mbits/sec   91   26.9 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  76.1 MBytes   638 Mbits/sec  106    126 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  81.2 MBytes   681 Mbits/sec  103   41.0 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  90.4 MBytes   759 Mbits/sec   93   65.0 KBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  88.5 MBytes   742 Mbits/sec   83   35.4 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  79.8 MBytes   669 Mbits/sec  108   32.5 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  90.4 MBytes   759 Mbits/sec   75   39.6 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  85.8 MBytes   720 Mbits/sec   78    228 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   844 MBytes   708 Mbits/sec  916             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   843 MBytes   707 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Network Diagram

=====: Wired Cat6 connection -----: Wifi 802.11ac

Proxmox ===== Unifi Switch ===== Unifi Access Point  ------- Macbook Pro (wifi)
                   |
                   ====== Macbook Pro (USB-c ethernet adapter)

Access point is placed on top of the switch, which is very hot. Maybe the access point is overheating, causing the slow speeds?

Update: Changing 5Ghz channel after doing a RF scan and going from 4 to 8 channel widths helped achieve 500 Mbps over wifi

dominix avatar
gf flag
how reliable is your network ? can you run iperf3 or likes on both size and report the speed you got ? (if there is a network bottleneck dont search for disk issue), cheers.
Athena Wisdom avatar
jp flag
@dominix You're right, the `iperf3` tests show that the wifi connection is limiting the transfers to/from the Macbook Pro to around 10-35 MB/s. Switching it to a wired ethernet connection increases this to ~85 MB/s.
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