So a couple of things I'd be looking at if it were me:

• RAID card config: write-through / write-back will have performance impacts (but should hit S2019 and W10 equally)
• Network vs storage:
  -- iperf3 only runs in memory, so it completely removes storage from the troubleshooting equation, if you see the same type of drop-off testing with iperf3 you know that there's a networking gremlin somewhere that needs to be dealt with.
  -- something like LANSpeedTest actually writes and reads a file on the far-end storage, so it should provide the same results as your typical file transfer, you can also arbitrarily set the transfer size, just in case you want to test something bigger than what you've got as a static file.
• What's actually running in the OS at the same time
  -- use something like processhacker to see what else might be using the network or other IO when your file transfer slows to a crawl.
  --Maybe there's security configs being applied to your servers and not the W10 guests that aren't being taken into consideration.

@Pete-S said in File transfer drop:

This sound like the exact same problem as in the thread below:
https://mangolassi.it/topic/21725/disabling-spectre-mitigations-in-2020

"What I find puzzling / frustrating is that I've tested installing Server2019 and W10 1909 as guests on the same hardware with the same XenTools and get hugely different performance results. My understanding was that they were essentially a shared code-base so I'm at a loss as to why such a performance difference. Specific test case is a huge file transfer, the W10 guest spikes a cpu thread to 95 or 100% while the Server 2019 guest runs a thread up to about 20% and it stays there for the duration of the file transfer."

Not sure, he seems to have better / more consistent performance on W10 than Server 2019, which is the opposite of what I was seeing with my setup.

https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/19/microsoft-windows-package-manager-powertoys/

Not implying that ms is cribbing the choco code, but this could make for some interesting developments....

@AshKetchum
Is this VMWare Workstation or ESXi? You'll need a retail key on ESXi for sure... probably on Workstation as well, but I'm sure that someone else will chime in on that aspect since I've nudged the licensing door open. I would never try to clone over a P2V for a workstation if you don't have to. Just a fresh install as a VM.

So with everything that's going on we're facing the prospect of having to wring even more life out of some of our hardware.

Hardware in question is a bunch of R720xd, each with 2 E5-2660 v2 CPUs.

Workload would be Windows10 guests for our VDI environment.

Has anyone got a real perspective on the risks and performance benefits of using spec-ctrl=no-l1d-flush on XenServer and friends? The directive so far has been to keep things on pre-mitigation firmware and platforms... So I'm looking at running XS 7.1 (don't recall the exact CU and patch level) vs either the latest LTSR or the 8.1 with spec-ctrl=no-l1d-flush
<preemptive rant> Yes it's ugly, no I don't like it, but it's not my call so there's no point in discussing the many levels on which this is a bad idea. Looking for assistance / solutions, not a bunch of criticism or complaints. </preemptive rant>

What I find puzzling / frustrating is that I've tested installing Server2019 and W10 1909 as guests on the same hardware with the same XenTools and get hugely different performance results. My understanding was that they were essentially a shared code-base so I'm at a loss as to why such a performance difference. Specific test case is a huge file transfer, the W10 guest spikes a cpu thread to 95 or 100% while the Server 2019 guest runs a thread up to about 20% and it stays there for the duration of the file transfer.

@moyarich said in How to sync files between a windows and a linux machine?:

@notverypunny I am hoping that I can use "cobian backup" to send files to the linux machine as well, but there isn't much information on the internet about how to do it. For some directories it will be realtime,for others it will be scheduled.

I am also looking for a free/open source application

If cobian can do a 1 way push from your central windows machine to a SMB or other standard network share you should be able to convince it to work against a share on Linux as much as against a share on windows.

I'll agree with the others that SyncThing looks like a great option, just didn't fit my use case since it wouldn't keep file ownership settings.

@scottalanmiller said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

@dbeato said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

@notverypunny said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

@dbeato said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

@notverypunny said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

OpenManage Enterprise

That's why we put it on a VM.

Yep, it's a vm.... but the VM and the iDRAC were set to share the same NIC on the host (whoever did the initial hardware setup didn't want to / couldn't use the iDRAC's dedicated NIC)

Weird, We use dedicated iDRAC all the time.

I think "didn't want to" is the key language there

Yeah... dealing with things that someone else setup is always interesting to say the least

All depends on other variables in the mix. Syncthing looks interesting but from what I remember reading, it doesn't maintain permissions. Realtime vs scheduled is also going to factor in. Resilio and SeaFile are also potential candidates. I'd consider changing to a single solution that can do your Windows and Linux destinations.

Cheers

@dbeato said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

@notverypunny said in OpenManage Enterprise Gotcha:

OpenManage Enterprise

That's why we put it on a VM.

Yep, it's a vm.... but the VM and the iDRAC were set to share the same NIC on the host (whoever did the initial hardware setup didn't want to / couldn't use the iDRAC's dedicated NIC)

Just in case anyone else has been fighting a battle with OpenManage Enterprise. For whatever reason - at least in my deployment - the appliance won't talk to the iDRAC of it's own host if they're using the same NIC.

Hopefully this spares someone else some frustration.

Cheers

@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:

@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:

Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.

Pop_OS doesn't make their own desktop like Mint does. Mint's focus is making an alternative desktop environment and Mint is just the showcase OS for it. Pop_OS! is a tweaking to Ubuntu used as the default on custom hardware.

Cinnamon is far and away my preferred DE. I just wish that other distro's / spins would integrate it as tightly with the underlying OS as Mint does. The add/remove (install/uninstall) integration right into the main menu is convenient. I just have an extreme dislike for their policy of staying on LTS / Stable packages and package base.

Since the registry seems to be the pain-point, as much as they may be looked down upon by lots of the folks here, have you tried any of the registry "cleaner" tools? Ccleaner and Wise365 both have portable versions and they both allow you to run an analysis without applying any changes.

Manjaro (based on Arch) has been great. I have yet to look for software to install that isn't available either via the standard repos or AUR.

I'll concede that I've had to get into the cli a couple of times for minor package manager bugs, but that's a minor issue for me. (OP asked preferred, not best for newbs)

The main selling points for me have been:

• Excellent hardware support within it's own ecosystem / environment
• semi-bleeding edge
• rolling-release (install once, update forever)
• good use / setup / integration for the Cinnamon DE

Assume you've tried various compatibility mode settings?

@syko24 said in Dell PERC H740 with SSDs?:

@scottalanmiller said in Dell PERC H740 with SSDs?:

@syko24 said in Dell PERC H740 with SSDs?:

Is it worth putting a PERC H740 8GB NV Cache controller in or what is appropriate for a RAID controller?

Well that's a decision that can't be made at the hardware level. If you don't provide hardware RAID, what is your storage plan?

If you plan to use software RAID or some form of RAIN, the PERC is useless or potentially even a problem. But if you don't, it's critical.

Most likely going with hardware RAID as we'll be running Hyper-V. Just curious if I were looking at software RAID I would still use an H330 for passthrough???

Maybe it's the beer, but why would you go for software RAID if you can get budget for hardware RAID?

@scottalanmiller said in Dymo vs. other print servers:

@notverypunny said in Dymo vs. other print servers:

So just to throw another option into the mix:
https://www.virtualhere.com/

Basically a usb over IP... one of the guys at work was playing around with it, seemed to work OK, should be sufficient for label printing and would eliminate the concerns surrounding 3rd party print servers and driver updates.

USB doesn't natively allow for sharing. How would that be handled in this scenario? Does it "just work"? I've not tried this in that kind of scenario so have no idea how it would react.

Honestly don't know. I would hope for there to be a virtual plug / unplug function that could be auto-magically invoked... either out of the box or via scripting / timeout

So just to throw another option into the mix:
https://www.virtualhere.com/

Basically a usb over IP... one of the guys at work was playing around with it, seemed to work OK, should be sufficient for label printing and would eliminate the concerns surrounding 3rd party print servers and driver updates.

@Obsolesce said in ipv6 @ home:

@notverypunny said in ipv6 @ home:

Thoughts on using IPv6 at home? Pros and cons? I'm not running it at present and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations either way.

Chances are that your router already has a public IPv6 address and block from your ISP and your computers are already using them. Mine were before I left. Your cell phone already is by default.

Running the ISP modem in "bridge mode" with a ddwrt router. IPv6 is off at the moment

Thoughts on using IPv6 at home? Pros and cons? I'm not running it at present and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations either way.

@Pete-S said in SAS to USB:

@notverypunny said in SAS to USB:

@Pete-S said in SAS to USB:

Just plug them into a server that doesn't have a stupid perc controller and wipe them there.

We're almost exclusively Dell, so finding someplace to connect a SAS that isn't a PERC is going to be difficult, if not impossible.

I'd like to avoid having to use a server at all to blank them, might have to dig through some of the boxes of "junk" to see if there might be a SAS-compatible card that I could throw into a desktop

That's probably your best bet.

Dell also makes pure HBAs, like HBA330. Maybe it's even called PERC as well, I don't know. Anyway, if you put the disk in a SAS controller that isn't raid it doesn't think it's part of an array or something.

AFAIK they use the PERC moniker on everything that's a drive controller for the servers. All of our HBAs are perc, mostly H710 if my memory is correct. From some research a while back I seem to recall that it's mostly LSI stuff that's either just rebranded or possibly tweaked for Dell