Dual NIC's and SMB Multichannel Setup confusion..need help

[techdan91]

so my latest venture has been trying to get faster file transfer speeds, and in that ive come upon nic teaming and smb multichannel…

so i have a truenas server with two 2.5gb nics and a windows client with two 2.5gb nics…windows was easy to set up since it just did it for me…but my main issue comes with how to set it up properly with truenas networking, since you can only have once interface per subnet. but when i add a random ip/subnet and do an smb file transfer, i still only get 100MBps(1gb) file transfers…the original nics traffic is the only one that moves and the new nic is basically doing nothing?

am i missing something? i checked the multichannel box for smb…but what i have noticed is that when i do file transfers between two different pools/drives IN my truenas system, i get speeds that fluctuate between 150MBps/350MBps…just cant get it from the separate windows client pc over the network…and im confused how it jumps to over 300MBps, but not complaining lol, just curious how/why it does

i then tried setting up the nic teaming network and made a network with 2gbps, but this didnt fix my issue either, i wanted to test it out though…so im lost lol

all four nics are realtek 2.5gb, connected to a managed 1gig switch, ive been doing a bunch of searching and reading but cant really find anything useful and there really isnt much out there…so if anyone can tell me the way to set it up properly or a link to a turtorial id greatly appreciate it…

please ask for any hardware info needed

[techdan91]

some more info

ive noticed that when i check smb status in clients powershell, itll say the rss capable= False, so ive been trying to get it to be enabled but it just doesnt work for some reason and im lost on ideas there…

was curious if i needed to bridge my second nic on my client? and maybe also link aggregate the second on my server to the first? ive just read a bit about this

[sybreeder]

Turn on smb multuchannel in samba settings assuming you have truenas scale 23.xx and newer

[techdan91]

yea that was about the first thing i did when i started this whole process

[techdan91]

WOOOOOOOW, im a genius!

nice to answer my own questions successfully hahaha…but i fixed the issue apparently…

so as i asked earlier if i needed to link or bridge the network connections…you do! i tested my theory and bridged my client pcs second nic to my main/original nic and now file transfers from my client pc to my truenas server SMB share network folders reach up to about 220MBps max and seem to be stable-ish at around 170MBps…good enough for me lol…

i also now see my second nic’s activity equal to my first nic on my Truenas server…without doing any bridging or linking with them…so idk if i need to or if it would do anything if i did that, maybe ill test it in the future…but for now i need to move some files lol…

but i notices that when i check the status of the smb multichannel on the windows client powershell, the RSS capable still says False as well as the rdma…which seems strange to me still, but im just glad i was finally able to break the 113MBps limit!!! so happy hahaha…also also, the current channels value is also still only 1, but maybe thats cause it sees a bridged network as just one? i was told it should be more than one hence multichannel, so if anyone has any further knowledge that would be great…will post some snapshots and hope this helps others in the future!!!

[MBILC]

Great to see. I know Windows disabled NIC bonding recently or last year in some versions trying to force people to use Ent versions or even move to Server to get it working with PowerShell commands no longer working, so glad it was not that.

[techdan91]

yea i definitely jumped the gun on my “genius” solution lmfao…i was wrong lol…

turns out my really issue was my switch…its only 1gb…so it occurred to me to maybe try at least a 2.5gb one and lo’ and behold, im getting about 200MBps transfer speeds now lol…and ive tested it across multiple large files through smb transfers from my client pc to my truenas server pc…

i tested it with bridge mode on my client pc, i tested it with nic-teaming mode on client pc, and tried it without either…and it works exactly the same way anyway you try it lmfao…so i just got rid of the bridge/nic-team and have two separate nic networks, which seems to split the load…

on the truenas network side, i left my original nic as a static ip, and the new second nic as set to use dhcp, so they are on the same network now…before i just made up an ip cause i couldnt figure out how to get it linked up and running, but it still seemed to get traffic from a random ip/subnet that didnt have a gateway…makes no sense to me lol.i just really dont understand how/why it works…i really wish someone whos knowledgable on it can explain it to me cause im really curious on how it all works together…

but ive noticed that this one file i have doesnt get farther than about 120MBps for some reason…hence all my testing…i tried 3 other files that were the same large size (200gb) and they all ran at speeds from 180MBps-220MBps…so id like to know how/why this one file is not getting those speeds…

but for now, im done with all this SMB multichannel nonsense lol, ive spent waaaaay to much time and energy reading and searching for solutions and other peoples experiences, my brain is fried from another wasted week haha…

So the solution…i needed to upgrade my switch to a 2.5gb to get the 2gb speeds ive been looking for…lmao

Edit: Some screenshots for fun…the one file that cant get above 120MBps and the few others that get about 200MBps…some powershell script that still confuses me, like why it says im only on one channel and not two, and the rss and rdma still FALSE…would really like to know the reason or fix/solution to that if anyone reads this lol

the confusing 120MBps file

the 200MBps files

powershell scripts

[techdan91]

@techdan91

So the solution…i needed to upgrade my switch to a 2.5gb to get the 2gb speeds ive been looking for…lmao

…the real solution to make it shorter in original post