QNAP TS-251 as a ZurmoCRM Application Server Performance Report

In Thecus N2560 as a ZurmoCRM Application Server Performance Report, I see N2560 could run as fast as Shuttle X50V2. Therefor, embedded Linux shall be as fast as desktop Linux.

Although QNAP TS-251 has the latest Celeron J1800 and comes with the latest QTS 4.1, it is still using outdated PHP 5.3.28 and MySQL 5.1.36. Let’s see how fast it could beat with previous Atom D2701 models.

Processor, RAM, and Linux Difference

TS-251 has a J1800 at 2.41GHz which may burst to 2.58GHz; N2560 has a CE5335 SoC at 1.6GHz; TS-119PII is a Marvell 88F6281 at 1.6GHz; AS-602T and TS-269L is Atom D2701 at 2.13GHz; the only desktop Shuttle X50V2 is Intel Atom D510 at 1.6GHz.

J1800 is based on Bay Trail which is part of the Atom family. It has 2 cores but without hyper-threading technology which means it may serve and 2 threads only. The 1MB cache size is still the same to D2700 but support for 8GB RAM which is double to D2700. CE5335 SoC and D2700 are based on Berryville and Cedar Trail respectively. Both have 2 cores with hyper-threading technology. The former has 512KB L2 Cache and supports 32-bit physical addressing while the latter has 1MB and supports 36-bit. Marvell 88F6281 has 32-bit instruction set. D510 is very similar to D2700 expect running at a lower frequency.

All QTS except TS-251 and ThecusOS in N2560 are 32-bit. QTS on TS-251, ADM in AS-602T and Debian in TurnKey Linux are x64 which means 64-bit.

Below is the unix name for ThecusOS in N2560:

[root@N2560 ~]# uname -a
Linux N2560 2.6.39-1.ce17.fc16.i686 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 13 11:03:52 CST 2014 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Below is the unix name and version info for QTS on TS-251:

[~] # uname -a
Linux NASE4DDCE 3.12.6 #4 SMP Thu Jun 5 00:31:44 CST 2014 x86_64 unknown
[~] # uname -m
x86_64
[~] # cat /proc/version 
Linux version 3.12.6 (root@NasX86-4) (gcc version 4.1.3 20070929 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-16ubuntu2)) #4 SMP Thu Jun 5 00:31:44 CST 2014

RAM in TS-251 is expandable to 8GB but must be installed with the same capacity in pairs. The 64-bit QTS could manage RAM beyond 4GB.

Test Method

I connect NAS to computer directly. Install ZurmoCRM and setup with build-in demo data. Shuttle X50V2 is setup with ISO image from TurnKey Linux Zurmo. Then use Firefox to list all contacts. There are 28 contact records provided from ZurmoCRM demo data.

To satisfy requirement, I also manually edit Qthhttpd.sh in QTS, and php.ini in Debian and ADM to increase memory_limit from 128M to 256M with one exception: I keep everything as default in TS-251. Please reference Asustor ADM Configuration and Executable Files, QNAP QTS Configuration and Executable Files, and TurnKey Linux Configuration and Executable Files to find the path. I also edit php.ini and my.cnf on ThecusOS. Please refer to Prerequisite Before you Install ZurmoCRM on Thecus NAS running ThecusOS 6 for detail.

All unnecessary background process and programs are disabled.

With the right cache system required by Zurmo, it may 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 on certain ADM. QTS or TurnKey Linux doesn’t have this extension by default.

For PHP 5.5.x, ADM doesn’t have build-in support for neither OPcache nor APCu but ThecusOS support both of them. In other words, PHP 5.5.x on ADM doesn’t provide any PHP accelerator.

Running Memcache extension and memcached service together helps to cache database result and lower database loading in LAMP. It is supported on Thecus Apache_2.2.27.1_x86.mod and certain ADM but not supported on QTS nor TurnKey Linux.

You may manually installed them with apt-get easily in TurnKey Linux but need to compile with cross-link reference yourself in QTS. memcached is available on App Center in QTS.

TS-251 is configured with Seagate Desktop HDD 500GB * 1. Others are listed in comparison table.

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

I measure time to load 1 and 5 contacts in a single login session. The 5 contacts are loaded in different tabs in the same Firefox. Therefore, it use 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.

Performance

Performance comparison table on QNAP TS-251 with others loading contacts from ZurmoCRM.

Analyze

TS-251 is almost as fast as the second best configuration for N2560 with MySQL 5.5.14. It match Shuttle X50V2 without Alternative PHP Cache nor memcached. N2560 with PHP 5.5.11, APCu, memcached, and a newer MySQL 5.6.17 is even faster than TS-251.

Compared to TS-269L, it is a huge improvement. More than 50% faster!

With the help of Alternative PHP Cache and memcached, AS-602T may catch up with TS-251.

As you may see, QNAP TS-119PII is the slowest among them. It is clear that Intel Atom D2701 execute LAMP applications faster than Marvell 88F6281.

Compared to my experience with Salesforce, running ZurmoCRM on NAS is slow.

Other Thoughts

The new Bay Trail J1800 on TS-251 is definitely a plus to NAS running power hungry LAMP applications. But as I have mentioned in QNAP TS-251 File Transfer Performance Report, the real shine is Virtualization Station.

I will try to get more RAM for TS-251 and test if TurnKey Linux Zurmo running in Virtualization Station could be even faster!

Reference

1. APCu
2. Asustor ADM Configuration and Executable Files
3. Asustor AS-602T as a ZurmoCRM Application Server Performance Report
4. Asustor: ADM
5. Asustor: AS-602T
6. Connect NAS to your Computer Directly
7. Debian
8. How Multi-Core Processors Accelerate your LAMP Applications
9. Intel: Celeron Processor J1800 (1M Cache, up to 2.58 GHz)
10. Intel Newsroom: Intel Launches System-on-Chip Storage Solution Designed for Simple Video Transcoding and Streaming
11. Intel: New Storage Solutions Based on the Intel® Atom™ Processor CE5300 Series Simplifies HD Content Sharing and Delivery Between Mobile Devices and Smart TV
12. Intel: Atom Processor D2700
13. Intel: Atom Processor D510
14. Intel: Products (Formerly Bay Trail)
15. memcached
16. Marvell: Marvell 88F6281 SoC with Sheeva Technology
17. Maximum MTU doesn’t mean Best Performance
18. Mozilla: Firefox
19. MySQL
20. MySQL: 4.2.3.3 Using Option Files
21. Optimize Asustor ADM for ZurmoCRM
22. Perishable Press: Improve Site Performance by Increasing PHP Memory for WordPress
23. PHP
24. PHP: Alternative PHP Cache
25. PHP: OPcache
26. PHP: PHP Manual: Appendices: php.ini directives
27. PHP: PHP Manual: Appendices: php.ini directives: memory_limit
28. PHP: PHP Manual: Function Reference: Other Services: Memcache
29. Prerequisite Before you Install ZurmoCRM on Thecus NAS running ThecusOS 6
30. QNAP TS-251 File Transfer Performance Report
31. QNAP QTS Configuration and Executable Files
32. QNAP: App Center (QPKG)
33. QNAP: TS-119PII
34. QNAP: TS-251
35. QNAP: TS-269L
36. QNAP: QTS
37. QNAP: Virtualization Station
38. Salesforce
39. Seagate: Desktop HDD
40. Shuttle X50V2 Datasheet
41. StackOverflow: Is the more the better for PHP memory_limit? [closed]
42. Thecus: N2560
43. Thecus N2560 as a ZurmoCRM Application Server Performance Report
44. TurnKey Linux
45. TurnKey Linux: Zurmo
46. TurnKey Linux Configuration and Executable Files
47. WD: WD Red ( WD10EFRX)
48. Wiki: Hyper-threading
49. Wiki: Instruction set
50. Wiki: Operating system
51. Wiki: LAMP (software bundle)
52. Wiki: Linux: Desktop
53. Wiki: Linux on embedded systems
54. Wiki: List of PHP accelerators
55. Wiki: Multi-core processor
56. Wiki: PHP accelerator
57. Wiki: Session (computer science)
58. Wiki: Standard RAID levels: RAID 1
59. Wiki: Thread (computing)
60. Wiki: uname
61. Zurmo: Zurmo Cache System Explained
62. ZurmoCRM