View source for Download/Upload Traffic Load using NFS, AFP, CIFS/SMB and SFTP

<br>
=Given=
For testing, we used 2X500gb hard disk drives (7200RPM) as one contiguous  volume.  We needed to test the drive's throughput using different protocols, on a 1Gb network. A 12gb file was used for upload and download.

Which one is fastest?

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_File_Transfer_Protocol SFTP (SSH/Secured File Transfer Protocol)] - using WinSCP on Windows 7
*[http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-nfs.html NFS (Network File System)] - on Linux Desktop Client
*[http://oreilly.com/openbook/samba/book/ch03_03.html SMB (Samba)] - on Windows 7
*[https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/networking/conceptual/afp/Concepts/Concepts.html AFP] - on Mac OS

<br><br>

=Using CIFS/SMB (Samba)=

The upload speed reached 600Mbps and it took less than 3 minutes to upload a 12gb file.

[[Image:smb upload.jpg]]
<br>

The download speed approached 390Mbps and it took less than 5 minutes to download a 12gb file.

[[Image:samba download.jpg]]
<br><br>

=Using AFP=

The upload speed was consistent at 98Mbps and it took about 20 minutes to upload a 12gb file.

[[Image:afp upload.jpg]]

<br>

The download speed reached 100Mbps and it took more than 20 minutes to download a 12gb file.

[[Image:afp download.jpg]]

<br><br>

=Using SFTP=

The upload speed reached 130Mbps and it took about 12 minutes to upload a 12gb file.

[[Image:Sftp_upload.jpg]]
<br>

The download speed was approximately 135Mbps and it took about 14 minutes to download a 12gb file.

[[Image:Sftp_download.png]]

<br><br>

=Using NFS=

The upload speed could be up to 700Mbps. For most part it was not consistent at 350Mbps of upload. It took about 10 minutes to upload a 12gb file.

[[Image:nfs upload.jpg]]
<br><br>


The download speed was approaching 540Mbps. It took less than 5 minutes to download a 12gb file.
<br>
[[Image:nfs download.jpg]]

=Initial Findings=

According to our tests, the fastest protocol for uploading of files is SAMBA and the slowest among them all is AFP. 
<br><br />
The fastest protocol used for downloading of files is NFS and the slowest is AFP.
<br /><br />
=See Also=
* [[Network Attached Storage]]