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VaZ

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 31, 2012
324
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Is anyone else experiencing slower and slower AFP File Transfers with each newer os x generation to an old PPC 10.5.8 local private File Server on gigabit ethernet?

Benchmarks show it can do 110MB/sec locally on the PPC G4.
I noticed different os x versions produce different AFP file transfer speeds using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test 3 and AJA System Test.

Lion to Leopard = 70MB/s writes
Mavericks to Leopard = 52MB/s writes
High Sierra to Leopard = 32MB/s writes
Mojave to Leopard = 30MB/s writes

What gives ?!
 
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Just tested on my AFP connected volume.
Screenshot 2018-10-10 at 02.21.44.png


Very normal speed via the 1Gbps ethernet port.
Screenshot 2018-10-10 at 02.22.10.png


So, it seems not a Mac Pro specific issue.
 
Is that to an old PPC Mac running Leopard?
For me its fast with newer Intel Macs too..
 
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That's interesting thank you h9826790 i think i have some bugs to workout somewhere..I did upgrade from Mavericks to Mojave maybe some old settings were carried over which are outdated..i'll create a new Admin user and test from there.

I also only do OS upgrades but not clean installation.

Anyway, for file transfer, make sure you enable Jumbo Frame in network. Even though I don't think this is your issue. But it can make file transfer faster.
Screenshot 2018-10-10 at 17.35.27.png
 
I shall try MTU 9000 as well thank you !
Also are you on a private 192 network like i am? Can i see your 1st tab in Network prefs to see your configuration?
 
I've spent the last 4 hours testing everything i could think of and sure enough the older osx versions have faster AFP. Give it a try yourself i've only tested the 4 types i have access to at the moment. Let Blackmagic run for a min or 2 and compare your results.
 
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Thanks my config looks similar to yours. I've spent the last 4 hours testing everything i could think of and sure enough the older osx versions have faster AFP. Give it a try yourself plz i've only tested the 4 types i have access to at the moment. Let Blackmagic run for a min or 2 and compare your results.

You mean keep Blackmagic running for few more cycles?

I’ve done that already. If you check my last screen capture. You can see the upload / download cycle. In fact, I let it run more than 3min before I make the capture. The result is very similar in each cycle.
 
What are your other os x versions you're comparing to ??
 
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Without using a PPC Mac as the destination the test cannot be replicated on your end.
 
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< Well whats your other osx version you're comparing to ??
I don't think you're following what i'm saying ..

If you want to know. There is no speed change between High Sierra and Mojave. Always ~100MB/s

Anyway, the point is...

You said Mojave has poorer AFP performance than the previous OS.

And I told you that Mojave gives me the max possible performance via a 1Gbps network.

Is it possible to get better performance in any previous OS? NO, because it's already maxed out.

I must emphasis that I did NOT boot back to my HS partition to do any test. Because I often copying large files via AFP between my Mac Pro NAS. And I also has iStat to monitoring the copying speed. It's always the same speed regardless OS version, always ~100MB/s since I setup this connection. Never change.
 
When i try Leopard to Leopard I get fastest results.
 
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You're not following i already tested High Sierra as you can see way up top it's only 2MB faster with my AFP test. I need someone to boot into an OLDER osx version 'aka' Tiger - Sierra and compare results with Mojave.

< Is it possible to get better performance in any previous OS? NO, because it's already maxed out.

Why YES it is, because i've tested this out. Try for yourself if you don't believe me. You'll get higher speeds on older osx versions. I mean old not new.

1Gbps network = 125MB/s ABSOLUTELY MAX. And this is theoretical max. As you can see from my screen capture, 113.5MB/s in Mojave. This is the practical max we can achieve via a 1Gbps network. What's the point to try any older OS if THIS IS THE MAX POSSIBLE WE CAN ACHIEVE WITH THIS HARDWARE?

In your case, you only get 30MB/s, that's of course still has room to improve, BUT NOT IN MY CASE, IT'S ALREADY MAXED OUT! Can you follow this?

Trust me, I am trying to help you. I did read all your post, and think about what it means, and then tell you what I know.

You told me that you tested "4 types" (which actually means 4 different generations OSX / macOS), and which shows the later the worse. So, you suspect the OS version make the difference.

And what I showed you is Mojave has NO issue on AFP. It can FULLY utilise a 1Gbps network. Going back to Tiger won't make a 1Gbps network become 2Gbps or 10Gbps. So, in my case, please tell me what's the point for this test? If there is any difference, the older OS can only be slower, but not faster. It won't help to solve your problem anyway.

If you believe upgraded from a "dirty" OS causing this issue. Then you don't need 4 hours to test it, just 1 hour should be enough. Get yourself a spare hard drive, install a clean Mojave on it, and test the AFP connection.

If still slow, then nothing about clean or dirty, but something is wrong.

I assume you boot the same Mac with same hardware but just different OS, then achieve different results. Therefore, must not the network card / cable / switch / router etc.

And since I already show you Mojave can do 110MB/sec locally (I believe this is what you want to achieve from your original post). Therefore, the OS itself is not the issue (in fact, High Sierra can also do 110MB/s).

Then the remaining possible suspects are the settings, AND the other end of the network. Since you said your setting similar to my setup. So, this should not be the issue as well.

In my case, the other end is a QNAP NAS, which may have very good support on AFP. In your case, I don't know. If the other end is another Mac that running Tiger, may be the Mac Pro side running any newer OS really can causing the performance difference (due to poor support from the other side?).
 
Same hardware same Mac 5,1 yes. And Yes the other end is a G4 Leopard server which i can hit 70MB/sec writes if i boot into any old osx with the 5,1.
 
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might be too late to respond here but I upgraded to Mojave today and it screwed up access to my Drobo NAS, which used afp to connect.(crashed the finder whenever I tried to connect)...After almost 2 hours on the phone with Apple, we switched it to SMB and it's working - seems slower, but it's working. I had to mount the drive by doing to Finder/Go/Connect to server then entering the NAS IP address. Wasted almost a day trying to fix it before finally getting through to Apple Support, who were great, but bloody hell, if they're not using AFP now shouldn't the update automatically switch my settings to SMB?
 
I'm sorry to hear that :(
My AFP is at least working with Mojave to a 10.5.8 Leopard File Sharing Server but much much slower now.
 
I'm sorry to hear that :(
My AFP is at least working with Mojave to a 10.5.8 Leopard File Sharing Server but much much slower now.

Well PTL for MacRumors Forums' "Similar Threads" section below! VaZ, we have the same issue! Check my point/observation #1 in the thread I posted yesterday:

Optimizing AFP (yes, AFP) over WAN & LAN

It's not just Mojave for you, it's Mavericks and later. Your Lion score above could probably be higher, depending on disk speeds and hardware, but once you hit Mavericks, you'll be topping out at around 55MB/s. Not sure why HS and Mojave drop even lower to 30MB/s, but I'm confident you won't be able to get more than about half the speed that h98 shows, or around 55MB/s.

The problem has to do with your server (10.5.8) and client (10.14.x) falling on opposite sides of a "threshold" (10.9). Clients and servers on the same side can hit wire speed of around 110-120MB/s, but on opposite sides are limited to about half that. I don't mean that it's a rule or artificial limitation, just that whatever changes were made to the AFP stack in Mavericks and later causes inefficiencies when talking to something older. This affects WAN file copying performance as well. Hopefully we can find a way to tune AFP to help this out. Check my thread for more.
 
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That's VERY Interesting. I will check it out thanks :)
 
I also recently noticed the Leopard Host side logs show a TON of these about 3 every minute.
mDNSResponder[20]: ERROR: getOptRdata - unknown opt 4

Also my cable modem shows a TON of these even though i have IPv6 disabled and FireWall completely turned off.
FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop , 505 Attempts, 2018/11/11 09:25:42 Firewall Blocked
FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop , 96 Attempts, 2018/11/12 06:38:51 Firewall Blocked



I'm not sure if these are related but does anyone else notice this on their end ??
 
I also recently noticed the Leopard Host side logs show a TON of these about 3 every minute.
mDNSResponder[20]: ERROR: getOptRdata - unknown opt 4

Yeah, I see that on many Leopard boxes. It's more just aggravating because it fills up your logs and makes them nearly un-parseable than it is a problem. I think it maybe has something to do with other, newer devices broadcasting their location on the network for when they sleep...but I can't recall!
 
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Any updates or changes with the Mojave 10.14.2 update ??
Maybe Apple Members need to report this bug because no one at Apple uses file sharing to older osx versions anymore !??
 
10.14.6 still throttles transfer speeds has anyone submitted this bug to Apple yet ?
 
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I wonder if there's a buffer or ACK setting that can resolve this?
I'm Full Duplex with Flow Control OFF on both ends.
 
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