In Thecus N2560 as a ZurmoCRM Application Server Performance Report, we know embedded Linux can be as fast as desktop Linux.

Even with the same processor, embedded Linux is the key to application performance. Let’s see how fast Thecus N2800 is compared to other Atom D2701 models.

Processor, RAM, and Linux Difference

N2800, Asustor AS-602T and QNAP TS-269L all have an Atom D2701 at 2.13GHz; QNAP TS-251 is a Celeron 1800 at 2.41GHz burst to 2.58GHz; Thecus N2560 is a Intel CE5335 SoC at 1.6GHz; QNAP TS-119PII is a Marvell 88F6281 at 1.6GHz. Shuttle X50V2 is an Intel Atom D510 at 1.6GHz. Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 72z is an Intel Pentium Processor G630 at 2.7GHz.

D2700 is based on Cedar Trail with 1MB and 36-bit Physical Address Extension aka PAE. CE5335 is on Berryville with 512KB L2 Cache and 32-bit PAE. Both of them have 2 cores with hyper-threading technology. J1800 is based on Bay Trail with 1MB and 36-bit PAE. It has 2 cores and may serve only 2 threads concurrently. The 1MB cache size is still the same to D2700 but officially support for 8GB RAM which is double to D2700. Marvell 88F6281 has 32-bit instruction set. D510 is based on Pine Trail with 1MB and 32-bit PAE. G630 has 3MB Smart Cache and 36-bit PAE.

N2800 and N2560 come with 2GB while AS-602T, TS-251, and TS-269L are 1GB. Both N2800 and TS-251 is expandable to 8GB while TS-269L is 3GB. The 64-bit ThecusOS and QTS could manage RAM beyond 4GB. TS-119PII is fixed to 512MB. X50V2 is configured as 2.5GB and 72z is 16GB.

N2800 is running 64-bit ThecusOS 5 but N2560 is 32-bit ThecusOS 6. TS-269L and TS-119PII are running 32-bit QTS while TS-251 is 64-bit. AS-602T runs on 64-bit ADM. X50V2 is 64-bit Debian and 72z is 64-bit OpenSuSE.

ZurmoCRM use cache system to improve performance.

Alternative PHP Cache helps to execute faster by caching compiled codes and eliminating the overhead of compiling the same code again. It is supported in ADM, installable with apt-get in TurnKey Linux, and YaST in OpenSuSE.

For PHP 5.5.x, you will need APCu to enable compatibility by the new OPcache. They are supported in ThecusOS optional module. ADM provides an PHP 5.5.x package without APCu and won’t be benefit by PHP accelerator. They are both installable with apt-get in TurnKey Linux, and YaST in OpenSuSE but I didn’t test this configuration.

Running Memcache extension and memcached service together helps to cache database result and lower database loading in LAMP. It is supported in ThecusOS optional module, ADM, installable with apt-get in TurnKey Linux, and YaST in OpenSuSE.

Test Method

I connect NAS to computer directly. Install ZurmoCRM and setup with build-in demo data. There are 28 different contact records provided from ZurmoCRM demo data.

Here is the reference list I used for ThecusOS and ADM:

Prerequisite Before you Install ZurmoCRM on Thecus NAS running ThecusOS 6 (It is applicable to ThecusOS 5, too)
Prerequisite Before you Install ZurmoCRM on Asustor NAS running ADM 2.1

For QTS, I manually edit Qthhttpd.sh to increase memory_limit from 128M to 256M with one exception: I keep everything as default in TS-251. You may use “QNAP QTS Configuration and Executable Files” to find the path.

For X50V2, I setup with ISO image from TurnKey Linux Zurmo and edit php.ini in Debian to increase memory_limit from 128M to 256M. I also install Alternative PHP Cache and memcached service to test different configurations. You may use “TurnKey Linux Configuration and Executable Files” to find the path.

For 72z, I copy ZurmoCRM to web directory and edit php.ini in OpenSuSE to increase memory_limit from 128M to 256M. Alternative PHP Cache and memcached service are both installed. You may use “OpenSuSE Configuration and Executable Files” to find the path.

All unnecessary background process and programs are disabled.

N2800 is configured with HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 4TB * 2 as RAID 1. Others are listed in comparison table.

According to my MTU test, I keep it to use default 1500.

Firefox is used for browsing.

I measure time to load 1 and 5 contacts in a single login session. The 5 contacts are loaded in different tabs on the same Firefox instance. Therefore, it uses only one thread and won’t begin to load the next until finish. If you are confused or interested in the relationship of LAMP, thread, multi-core processor, hyper-threading, “How Multi-Core Processors Accelerate your LAMP Applications” provides detail explain in plain English.

I also add test result from following as reference:

Performance

Analyze

N2800 is the fastest among all NAS. It is very closed to the best configuration of X50V2. 72z and Salesforce still provides a much faster load time.

Final Thoughts

Although N2800 is still slower than Salesforce, 5 contacts within 13 seconds in a single thread is fast enough for 4 concurrent users from my experience. If you need faster load time, get a faster Thecus device with a more powerful processor.

I believe with a more powerful processor, a real server appliance for workgroup or small office as I described in “Why NAS is Getting More and More Popular” could be possible!

Thecus N2800 as a ZurmoCRM Application Server Performance Report

Processor, RAM, and Linux Difference

Test Method

Performance

Analyze

Final Thoughts

Reference

Published by Amigo

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Processor, RAM, and Linux Difference

Test Method

Performance

Analyze

Final Thoughts

Reference

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Published by Amigo

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