FTP transfer vs SMB transfer

Hi

After coming across a a snippet in the following thread where a user said he could transfer to the array faster with FTP I decided to give FTP to my server to transfer files a go, and found some interesting results.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=28404.0

I copied a 1.09GB rarset consisting of 26 rar files each of 48,829KB in size to /user/TV_Shows

Using teracopy with no test option it took 53 seconds

If I use filezilla to queue the same files and then process them to the same location it takes 23-25 seconds, this is the same time if I drag and drop within the FTP client also.

I ran the test a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining things and the times were constant

I know filezillla uses two streams to send the files but can the same be achieved with teracopy or an alternative as this is quite a time saving?

I apologise now if this is old news that i didn't know about.

ftp is faster than smb but it has less functionality.

ftp is faster than smb but it has less functionality.

What do you loose?

Sweet that was me!

FTP clients also have the option to split files into parts to do multi-part transfers which accelerate the speed even further for single file transfers, and this can be used in conjunction with multiple simultaneous file transfers.

That's beside the point though, I think that SMB sharing should just be handled better by unraid so that us windows users (I like to think the majority of us consumers are) have better experience with our unraid servers.

As someone who just bought 2 licenses at what I deem to be a high price I'm not very happy so far Maybe i'm just a noob and like everything linux this just seems to not work for us simple minded windows users.

Which FTP Client do you recommend as don't think Fillezilla does this, are the files also checked to ensure they make it to the destination identical to source?

You can enable file verification if the ftp server supports it I believe (checks md5 sums). Filezilla does multiple simultaneous file transfers (so it will copy part1, part2, part3, at the same time). Others do split parts, so part1 will be downloaded in  8 sections for example.

The different FTP clients I've used over the years are:

FlashFXP

Filezilla

CuteFTP

SmartFTP

This is definitely interesting ... I'll have to experiment a bit with it as well.

However ... unless you're writing to an unprotected array or a cache drive, I doubt it makes much difference, as even with SMB you can copy at 30-35MB/s, which is the max speed you're going to get anyway with writes to the protected array.  [usually -- I know Nokoff has some issue that's preventing this, and I don't see any "clues" in his other thread that jump out as to why ... hopefully another set of eyes will have an "ah hah" moment and help  ]

Nevertheless, it's certainly intriguing.  I'm anxious to see just how fast FTP transfers to the protected array will work.

ftp is faster than smb but it has less functionality.

 

What do you loose?

File system semantics. This may not matter for your application.

May be a bit off topic, but if you create a folder in your unraid with FileZilla, the permissions are 700 and the only way to correct them to 777 is through putty.  Permission changes through FileZilla (or Windows Explorer) don't stick.  It's been driving me crazy, copying with FileZilla to later find I can't access the folders.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for the link, but as I stated, CHMOD through FileZilla do not stick/apply.  I change them but nothing happens. 

Try adding the following to the go file:

echo "umask all 000" >> /etc/vsftpd.conf 

Excuse my ignorance, but after that 'go' entry & reboot, when I try to FTP to my unraid I can no longer connect.  I get "500 OOPS: missing value in config file for: umask all 000"

Must have looked at the wrong server conf.

Try

echo "local_umask=0000" >> /etc/vsftpd.conf

I'm a big fan of Beyond Compare which can also copy multiple files at once (defaults to 1, can adjust in settings) and files are presented in a nested tree format.

If you're not going through a cached drive, transferring multiple files at once would likely introduce significant file fragmentation as well.

@dgaschk

Sorry for the long delay, but still no go.  When Filezilla creates or copies a folder/file, its permissions are rwx for owner only, thus Windows cannot access them.  Still the only current solution is Midnight Commander to manually add permissions for group and others.  Here is my current go file, with your previous suggestion on the last line:

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &
# ftp adjustment to allow users to see files
cp /boot/vsftpd.conf /etc
#run notification app
installpkg /boot/packages/unraid_notify.tgz
# forum suggested b/c filezilla creating wrong permissions when copying files & folders
echo "local_umask=0000" >> /etc/vsftpd.conf

What's in /boot/vsftpd.conf?

# vsftpd.conf for unRAID
#
write_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# No anonymous logins
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
local_umask=077
local_root=/mnt
check_shell=NO
#
# All file ownership will be 'root'
guest_enable=YES
guest_username=root
anon_upload_enable=YES
anon_other_write_enable=YES
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
anon_world_readable_only=NO
#
# Logging to syslog
syslog_enable=YES
log_ftp_protocol=NO
xferlog_enable=NO
#
# Misc.
dirmessage_enable=NO
ls_recurse_enable=YES

# vsftpd.conf for unRAID
#
write_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# No anonymous logins
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
local_umask=077
local_root=/mnt
check_shell=NO
#
# All file ownership will be 'root'
guest_enable=YES
guest_username=root
anon_upload_enable=YES
anon_other_write_enable=YES
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
anon_world_readable_only=NO
#
# Logging to syslog
syslog_enable=YES
log_ftp_protocol=NO
xferlog_enable=NO
#
# Misc.
dirmessage_enable=NO
ls_recurse_enable=YES

Change local_umask to 000. Why are you using a custom conf?

Change local_umask to 000. Why are you using a custom conf?

Without the custom conf I couldn't FTP in at all.  Still having the same problem.  Do you not have a custom conf & can you still FTP in?

Here is what I'm now working with.  Thanks for your help.

Go:

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &
# ftp adjustment to allow users to see files
cp /boot/vsftpd.conf /etc

vsftpd.conf:

# vsftpd.conf for unRAID
#
write_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# No anonymous logins
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
local_umask=000
local_root=/mnt
check_shell=NO
#
# All file ownership will be 'root'
guest_enable=YES
guest_username=root
anon_upload_enable=YES
anon_other_write_enable=YES
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
anon_world_readable_only=NO
#
# Logging to syslog
syslog_enable=YES
log_ftp_protocol=NO
xferlog_enable=NO
#
# Misc.
dirmessage_enable=NO
ls_recurse_enable=YES

I can ftp using the default conf. Enter users in Settings->FTP.

I feel this is a stupid question, but where can I find the default conf?  I've been using my file for years.

Just remove the lines from the go file and the default will be used.

Removed the conf line in the go file, and then also renamed the conf file, but either way I cannot FTP in at all.  Are you saying that without a 'custom' conf file like mine, you are able to connect via FTP?

I've been running the latest beta BTW.

Yes. ftp works fine with the default config. Did you add users under Settings->ftp?