Stops and Starts while transferring files to NAS

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

I'm having a problem that I can't seem to solve.

I have a large library with the files all stored on Western Digital MyCloud devices.

I have a 10gbit ethernet backbone to switches and each NAS drive is connected at 1gbit.

Everything works fine except that if I am transferring files to one the NAS Drives, Emby will not play from that drive until the transfer has completed.

Sometimes it will try to play by stopping and starting. 

I have tested the transfer speeds to the drive and its is 100+ Megabytes per second as expected.

If I transfer -to- the drive, and -from- the drive at the same time the speed will drop to around 50-60 Megabytes per second.

This is still reasonably fast.

I also run a Pxxx Server on the same PC at the same time. That server does not have this issue.

The NAS Drives are configured for SMB 3. I am using Cat8 cables. 

I'm having the problem with the Nvidia Shield, and Apple TV 4k.

Both behave exactly the same way.

I'm stumped.....

What am I missing?

[Abobader 2942]

Hello PetesEmbyServer,

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[pwhodges 1527]

22 minutes ago, PetesEmbyServer said:

If I transfer -to- the drive, and -from- the drive at the same time the speed will drop to around 50-60 Megabytes per second.

That sounds as the link is not operating in full duplex.  This could have more impact on practical throughput than you might expect.

Paul

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

36 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

That sounds as the link is not operating in full duplex.  This could have more impact on practical throughput than you might expect.

Paul

yeah, I thought of that. It -is- set for full duplex. I figured the drop in speed is just a mechanical limitation of the Hard drives attempting to read and write at the same time.

Even if all that is true. I'm left wondering why the other movie server from the competition running side by side, is completely void of the problem.

These are all direct play with no transcoding.

One other strange thing is that I can play any movie from said drive on the Server PC itself with Emby Theater while this is happening, but the other client devices won't play, either on the local network, or remotely.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

I resolved the problem with a different ethernet card and driver.

Switched from a TPlink 10gbit card to a Intel X550 10gbit Card.

It wasn't until the driver provided by Dell was installed that the problem completely disappeared.

This was a weird one for me.

 

 

[Luke 37060]

Thanks for the feedback.

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

After more testing I found that the issue still remained, but much less so. I changed the task priority for Emby to High, and the problem is completely gone. 

The computer is a Dell 5820 with a W-2255 Xeon. 128gb ram and 2 Quadro GPU's. An RTX 4000, and a RTX5000. Emby is configured to use the RTX4000 as a dedicated GPU for transcoding. 

 

 

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

Forgot to mention the OS

Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
21H2 Build 22000.675
Emby 4.7.0.40

Perhaps this is a Windows 11 thing.
I don't recall anything like this with Windows 10.

 

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

Just when I think the problem is resolved. It's comes back. 

I did some more testing last night. 

I changed the task priority back to Normal. 

I found that transferring files from the server PC to the NAS prevents Emby from reading from that drive until the transfer has completed. If I transfer the files using another PC on the network, there is no problem. 

More interesting is that if I use a file manager (on the server PC) other than Windows Explorer to move the files, there is no problem. I'm using Directory Opus now and the speeds are the same or better, and Emby is able to access the NAS while the transfer is taking place. 

It would seem Windows Explorer is at least partly to blame for this problem. What I don't get is that it only affects Emby, and not other applications.