Sharkoon 5-bay RAID gives LOW speed on USB3

[RPB]

I connected an external harddisk using eSATA and a Sharkoon 5-bay RAID box using USB3 to my DS212+. The Sharkoon RAID box is in JBOD mode.
All hard disks in the RAID box are recognised fine. The transfer speed from each of these disks is around 27 MB/s (both read and write). This is very slow compared to the eSATA disk giving 55MB/s for write and 82 MB/s for read.
As a test I connected a separate hard disk using USB3 in a single Sharkoon external housing (Rapid-Case 3.5"). This gives transfer rates of 50 MB/s for writing and 71 MB/s for reading.

Using an USB2 cable to connect the 5-bay RAID box gave even slightly BETTER transfer rates than connecting it through an USB3 cable. It seems that the DS212+ does not recognise the USB3 connection.
The chipset used in the RAID box is Chipset: JMicron JMB393 for 1 to 5-ports Serial ATA II Port Multiplier and Jmicron JMS 539 to bridge to USB3.

Can someone give me advice?

[jamin0]

JMicron Chipsets are not supported. Below is the official response from Synology.

Hello Jamin,

It looks like your Mediasonic external enclosure is using JMicron chipset, which is deemed incompatible due to the fact that it causes connection timeout when under heavy stress (large files copy or constant writing).

We would like to ask you to try a different enclosure that does not have JMircon chipset or please consider using the external drives from the list below.
http://www.synology.com/support/faq_sho ... 43&lang=us

Our engineer asks that we eliminate this first as this is most common cause of local backup failure.

Thank you again for your message.

Best regards,
Sang
Synology America Corp.
http://www.synology.com

[wicked]

Hi RPB,
I'm looking for the Sharkoon device as a backup for my DS411+. Am I understanding correctly that it does work, but it's just slow? I guess I could handle that and would buy the Sharkoon anyway. I can't think of a better device for Diskstation backups as it only occupies one connector (eSATA or USB) and it's expandable unlike a common external hard drive. So unless it doesn't work properly, I'd still consider it a buy.
Many thanks for confirming.
Regards,
Wicked

[Vaako]

I also consider to buy the Sharkoon 5 or 8 bay RAID station for my DS1512+ to use it with USB 3.0 ports.

I now Synology support Silicon Image SiI3726 SATA Port Multiplier as this is what they use in the DX510.

But this chipset Sil3726 does not have USB 3.0 only Sata.

Unfortunately it is pity that USB 3.0 has so low performance on Synology devices and they realy schould solve this issue for the customme sakes.

@RBP
Can you tell me how you test the throughput of the external devices?
Please give an example!

[RPB]

I had private communication with someone. Since it can be usefull to others I decided to put it online.
Regards,
RPB

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Re: Sharkoon 5-bay RAID gives LOW speed on USB3
Sent: Thu Jan 03, 2013 3:48 am
by Vaako
Hi,

About your post:
Sharkoon 5-bay RAID gives LOW speed on USB3

Dit you have any news on this mabe after an DSM update?

Please let me now or post your findings in the forum.

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Re: Sharkoon 5-bay RAID gives LOW speed on USB3
Sent: Thu Jan 03, 2013 7:35 am
by RPB

No, Synology technical support gave up.
I did quite some research on the subject.

My conclusion is that all USB-3 external housings based on the JMS539 chip are not reliable for use with Synology. In my case for example the communication with my Sharkoon 5-bay RAID system falls back to USB-2 speeds and when I copy from one disk to another within the 5-bay RAID system the unit hangs.

The external housings that operate reliable are based on the ASM1051 chip. Although in these cases you should not use hibernation. I use a Silverstone DS3121. This is a 2-bay RAID system based on an ASM1051 chip. It works perfectly, with USB 3 speeds, and with high speed.

Hope this helps, regards, RPB

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Re: Sharkoon 5-bay RAID gives LOW speed on USB3
Sent: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:42 am
by Vaako
Thank you so much for the information!!!

About the ASM1051 chip, does it support hibernation not completly or what is in fact the problem?

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Re: Sharkoon 5-bay RAID gives LOW speed on USB3
Sent: Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:08 am
From: RPB
To: Vaako
The problem is that the behaviour after waking from hibernation is not predictable. Sometimes it is OK, sometimes the drive is not accesible, or very slow.

This is "normal" for ASM1051 chip driven external enclosures. When you look at Synology's own list of USB3 compatible devices you see a remark for the "RAIDON GT1650-SB3" and the "SPARTA 3.5-inch USB 3.0 SATA". It states: "Hibernation is not supported on this device". Both these devices have an ASM1051.

As far as I know there are no devices listed in the official USB3 compatibility list having a JMS539 chip, since USB3 communication with this chip is unstable. For the ones with an ASM1051 chip hibernation is not supported.

The SNAKE U-300 has a LucidPort USB300 chip and seems to work, but is limited to 2 Tbyte disks. The AKiTIO SK-3500 has a Fujitsu MB86C30 chip and is OK. I could not find a multi-bay external enclosure with this chip. Therefor I bought the Silverstone system (ASM1051 chip based).

There is only one other USB3 chip: the new JMS569. I think it is a redesign of the JMS539. It came on the market in June 2012. I don't know if anyone has experience with this chip.

Hope this helps. Kind regards, RPB
RPB

[Vaako]

Thanks for all this useful information RPB.

Are you able to flash the firmware of your Sharkoon RAID Box?

There are firmware's available for the JMB393 chipset with solved issues but you schould contact Sharkoon support for this.

Anyway keep us informed.
I wil also do this!

[Vaako]

Here some more info on the Sharkoon 5-Bay enclosures:

Both BOX & Station use the JMicron 539 for USB 3.0 connection.

However for RAID these chips are used:

JMicron JMB393 for BOX
JMicron JMB394 for Station

[RPB]

Thanks for all this useful information RPB.

Are you able to flash the firmware of your Sharkoon RAID Box?

There are firmware's available for the JMB393 chipset with solved issues but you schould contact Sharkoon support for this.

Anyway keep us informed.
I wil also do this!

Yes, I have the latest firmware installed in the Sharkoon RAID box. It is still not reliable.
Regards,
RPB