Direct 10G to NAS + LAN 1G issues

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CarlWilhelm

New Member
Oct 28, 2020
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Hi.

My fileserver is a Dell R730xd running Windows Server 2019 (2x 10GbE & 2x 1GbE QLogic BCM57800 network cards)
My workstation is running Windows 10 (1x 10GbE Aquantia 10G & 1x 1GbE Intel I211 network cards)

Both machines has a normal 1GbE network to my network.
IP's provided by DHCP. They are 192.168.2.87 for my server and 192.168.2.186 for my workstation.

I want to run 10Gbe direct between my workstation and server so i can get speed for video editing directly of my file server.

I have tried running a normal CAT6a cable between the 10Gbe card on my server and workstation and i set a static ip on both machines.
Server at 192.168.3.1 and workstation at 192.168.3.2.
I got a connection, and tried to map a network drive using the IP from the direct connection.
I can ping the ip and i do get a response.
Windows Task manager shows that all traffic goes through the 1G link no traffic on the 10G link.

I also tried to set the IP's on the 10G link in the same subnet as my normal network, but still all traffic goes on the 1G link.

I have read a few threads here on the forum, and googled my brains out, but can not find any good information about what i am doing wrong.

Any and all help would be appreciated.
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
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Are all drivers/firmware up to date?
Are you using quality cables? Tried different cables? Length of cables?
 

CarlWilhelm

New Member
Oct 28, 2020
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Are all drivers/firmware up to date?
Are you using quality cables? Tried different cables? Length of cables?
All drivers and fw are up to date.
Brand new 10Meter (33ft) cable. It's the only CAT6a cable i have that is long enough.
 

ArmedAviator

Member
May 16, 2020
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Keep the 10G links on a different network as you originally did. Use the /30 netmask (255.255.255.252) on both 10G interfaces.

Ensure that any access to the server is done by IP and not DNS - or create a DNS entry specific to the 192.168.3. address.

As far as troubleshooting goes, do you have a link? Are the network interfaces showing as Up? Is the link auto-negotiated to 10Gbps?
 

CarlWilhelm

New Member
Oct 28, 2020
12
1
3
Keep the 10G links on a different network as you originally did. Use the /30 netmask (255.255.255.252) on both 10G interfaces.

Ensure that any access to the server is done by IP and not DNS - or create a DNS entry specific to the 192.168.3. address.

As far as troubleshooting goes, do you have a link? Are the network interfaces showing as Up? Is the link auto-negotiated to 10Gbps?
I have a link up. Auto-negotiated to 10G.
I checked, and the network card on my workatation is able to be manually set to 1g, 2.5g, 5g and 10g.
On my server i only have 1g and 10g options.

On my workatation jumbo frames is off
On my server it is on with a low number ~1500 (not close to the server now and dont remember excact). And it is not possible to turn off on the server. I do not know if this has anything to do with it.

I have 4 network drives mounted.
I only tried mounting the one with my video files with ip. The rest was mounted with dns.
Do you suggest that i mount all with the ip for the 10G link?
 
Last edited:

dswartz

Active Member
Jul 14, 2011
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I would say so, yes. I have seen windows do weird things when there are multiple paths to a share name.
 

CarlWilhelm

New Member
Oct 28, 2020
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Well, i did some more tests.
I set up the ip's like Armed Aviator said:
Keep the 10G links on a different network as you originally did. Use the /30 netmask (255.255.255.252) on both 10G interfaces.
I tried disabling the 1G link to my router, and i maxed out my 10G connection on file transfer speed.
Screenshot_19.png

As soon as i enabled the 1G link, all traffic goes down to that speed.

I made an addition in the HOSTS file on my workstation where i gave the server another DNS name with the IP for the 10G link, and that did the trick.
Now i can max out the 10G link all day long! Thank you guys for all help!
 
Last edited:

CarlWilhelm

New Member
Oct 28, 2020
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Seems like i am still up the famous creek without a paddle.

The 10G link works sometimes. If i play back a video it will work for some time, but other times it looks like it limits itself to 3.6Mbps.... Very strange.
After the video has "buffered" for a while, it will pop back up to 10G for a few seconds, and then throttle back down. I almost get the feeling that the workstation is having problems "choosing" what route to take to the server. No luck in fixing the problem yet..
 

CarlWilhelm

New Member
Oct 28, 2020
12
1
3
Google "restrict smb multichannel to selected nics"

first link returned by Google is dated year 2012.
Many words had been written about this topic.

see
New-SmbMultichannelConstraint (SmbShare)
Thank you.

I did a little reading on the subject, and found an article from Microsoft stating that "Failover Clustering automatically recognizes all NICs on nodes that are using the same switch / same subnet - no additional configuration needed."
Since i am running different subnets, then it should not be enabled?
I will do some tests later and see what happens. Thanks for the tips :)
 
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