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https://neovisionconsulting.blogspot.com/2022/04/nassynologyds918.html
https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/sp/1172252.html
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Install popular titles from Steam and Origin text by Katsuaki Kato
Katsuaki Kato March 29, 2019 18:40
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Try to utilize NAS in games
Many people will be operating by consolidating large-capacity HDDs into NAS to secure large-capacity storage. So can the latest NAS be used as storage for games?
Recent PC games tend to have a large installation capacity as they become particularly noteworthy. Even in free-to-play games, 20GB to 30GB is commonplace, and titles over 50GB and over 100GB are not uncommon.
I think it's okay to put a game that you play heavy on the SSD in your PC, but if you put a game that you haven't played for a while on the SSD, capacity pressure is inevitable. It's a good idea to buy a large-capacity SSD or use it properly with an HDD, but I think it can be physically or price-wise difficult.
Therefore, this time, I would like to examine the means of "utilizing NAS" as a new perspective.
NAS these days has a considerable speed, and if it is over a gigabit LAN, it will sequentially hit a speed close to 2.5 inch HDD. Even so, the speed of "instead of a 3.5-inch HDD or SSD with SATA connection" does not come out, but if you think about the merit of NAS "safely store a large amount of data with RAID and other functions", comprehensively Can be used in a meaningful way.
For example, backing up a game.
Depending on the content of the game, you can re-download it without backing it up, but the capacity of the game is increasing and save data is often saved locally. Also, if you customize it with MOD etc., it is obvious that it will be difficult to rebuild unless you save it including the detailed environment.
By the way, the normal flow is "back up the game there ...", but this time I would like to experiment with "installing the game on the NAS" as an unusual use instead of such "normal".
If you say the result first, the waiting time will naturally increase compared to SSD and 3.5 inch HDD, but you can use it as a "save destination that can be used without uninstalling" on a notebook PC with insufficient storage, or capacity. It had sufficient performance as a "storage destination to be used with a little patience" to cover the shortage.
From the perspective of "NAS and games", it can be used not only for backup but also for saving play videos and screenshots, so if you want to use it comprehensively, "NAS with games" may be a very interesting option. not.
Recent games have a tendency to increase the installation capacity even for basic free games due to the higher resolution of textures.
In the case of a style like the author who plays various games widely and shallowly, no matter how much internal storage is available, it is not enough. Drive usage often reaches the red zone if you notice. In the case of SSD, securing a certain amount of remaining capacity is the key to longevity, so I want to operate it with a margin
Steps to install the game on your NAS
-From NAS initial settings to Steam / Origin settings-
In the first place, is it possible to install games on the NAS?
I mainly enjoy Steam and Origin games, but in conclusion, Steam games can be realized without problems because I can have the game installation folder (Steam library) in multiple places, but Origin games are not good. There were some things (I'll explain later, but it can be improved by using iSCSI).
First, let's briefly explain the procedure.
This time, we prepared a NAS that incorporates four 4TB models (WD40EFRX) of "WD Red" into Synology's NAS "DS918 +". It is assumed that the NAS and PC are connected to the same gigabit LAN. Two NVMe SSDs with M.2 connection can be used as a built-in cache for the DS918 +, but as long as it is connected to a gigabit LAN, the performance will not change dramatically, so this time only the HDD will be used.
Synology "DS918 +" prepared this time. The on-board CPU is a 4-bay NAS equipped with a quad-core Celeron J3455. M.2 SSD can also be incorporated as a cache, but this time it will not be used. The actual selling price is around 56,000 yen
We decided to incorporate four Western Digital "WD40EFRX" into the DS918 +.
The back of the DS918 +. Equipped with 2 cooling fans and eSATA port. Since it has 2 gigabit LAN ports, it also supports LAG (link aggregation), but a hub (layer 2 smart switch) that supports LAG is required.
HDD installation is very easy. Just place the HDD on the tray and snap the fixing parts in place.
Align the HDD and push it into the bay to finish.
All you have to do is connect to the LAN and turn on the power. Set up from a PC on the same LAN
When four HDDs are installed in the DS918 +, Synology's own "SHR", a RAID5-based proprietary RAID standard, is selected by default. It is possible to use RAID0 that emphasizes speed or RAID0 + 1 that emphasizes redundancy, but this time I simply selected SHR. In the case of 4TB x 4 SHR configurations, more than 10TB of storage space will be available.
Below, I will explain the flow of roughly configuring SHR with DS918 +, creating a share for Windows, and assigning a drive letter as a network drive drive.
[NAS settings]
Turn on the power of DS918 +, and when you hear a beep, access "find.synology.com" with the browser of the PC connected to the same LAN. Then it will discover DS918 + on the LAN. Now click "Connect" to start the setup
First, initialize all the HDDs built into the DS918 + and deploy the management tool "DSM". It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to finish the work, so let's be patient here
Set an administrator account and password. The "server name" at the top is the name for distinguishing this NAS on the LAN. Let's add something that is easy to understand in half-width alphanumericals. This server name will be needed after this
It will be in this state when the setup is completed. However, in this state, the HDD has just been initialized, so let's start preparing for storage.
When you click the "Windows-like icon" at the top left of the management screen, an icon called "Storage Manager" appears. Click this
There is nothing in the "Volume" column (= HDD is not registered), so click "Create"
Then follow the wizard. This time, we built a RAID array with Synology's recommended SHR, and set the file system to BTFS. Allocate all 4TB HDDs and get a total of 10.9TB of storage space
This time, open "Control Panel" from the menu on the upper left, and go to "Shared Folder" → "Create". The "Name" field should be easy to understand and should be filled in with only half-width alphanumerical characters.
You can follow the wizard, but we recommend that you enable "checksum".
Select the created shared folder and go to "Edit"-> "Permissions". Check the "Read / Write" of the administrator account (kkato in the figure) and "admin" that you registered first. It is time to add users etc. if necessary, but this time we will proceed assuming that the administrator = only oneself uses it
[Mount network drive in Windows]
Right-click on "PC" in Explorer and select "Map Network Drive"
For the folder, enter the name of the NAS first given after the half-width "\" + "" + the name given to the shared folder. This time it will be "\ nasHomeShare"
The HDD of the NAS is now registered as the Z drive. You may copy the Steam game itself at this stage
After assigning a drive letter as a network drive, the rest is the setting on the Steam side. Create a Steam library folder in that drive and put the game itself in it.
Next is the settings for Steam and Origin.
Just create a folder for Steam or Origin on the above drive and set it on the Steam or Origin side. In the case of Steam, it is easy to create a Steam library folder on multiple drives and distribute the installation destination for each game, but the difference is that Origin can only be installed in the specified folder (however, the games installed so far are in the old installation folder). You can use it as it is).
Open "Settings" on Steam, go to "Download"-> "Steam Library Folder"-> "Add Library Folder" and select the network drive you just added (Z in this example). If you put it directly under the drive, the file will be unsightly, so create a "SteamLibrary" folder in the "new folder" and select it.
If you want to install a new game with the Steam library folder registered, you will be able to select the installation drive.
Even games that have already been installed on the C drive can be moved by selecting "Properties"-> "Local Files"-> "Move Installation Folder". Steam is very manageable in this regard
Also, in the case of Origin, there was a case that "Although the installation destination can be set to the folder mounted this time, an error occurs when actually starting the installation". As a solution, I tried to create a junction under "Program Files" (below), but this also succeeded in "Battlefield V", but it did not work in "Apex Legend", and NAS file sharing was done. I couldn't install it on the network drive I used (I've also verified this separately with iSCSI).
[Example of installation procedure using the junction I tried this time]
Origin is not as easy as Steam. There are games that do not work well even with this method, so it is hard to say that it is the correct method.
1. Install the game on C drive
2. Copy the installed game folder to your network drive
3. Uninstall the game on the C drive side with Origin
4. Create a junction
5. Switch the installation destination to a network drive
6. Reinstall the game
First, measure the basic performance
Now, let's verify how long the game will start when the game is actually installed on the network drive provided by DS918 +. Below are the specifications of the PC used for verification.
[Verification environment]
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (8C16T, base 3.7GHz / boost 4.3GHz)
Motherboard: MSI X370 GAMING PRO CARBON (AMD X370)
Memory: G.Skill F4-3200C14D-16GFX (DDR4-3200 8GB x 2, operated with DDR4-2933)
Graphics: GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition
Storage: Plextor PX-512M5Pro (SATA SSD, 512GB), Seagate ST8000VN0022 (SATA HDD, 7200rpm, 8TB), Western Digital WD20SPZX (SATA HDD, 5400rpm, 2TB)
Power supply: Silverstone SST-ST850F-PT (850W, 80PLUS Platinum)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit version (October 2018 Update)
It is connected to DS918 + via Gigabit LAN. The SSD equipped with the verification machine is a little old type, but since the sequential read performance has reached almost the limit of SATA, it was judged that there is no problem.
Also, I would like to consider how it differs from the case of adding an HDD normally. Seagate's "Iron Wolf" 8TB model (ST8000VN0022) assuming a desktop gaming PC sub HDD and Western Digital's "WD Blue" 2TB model (WD20SPZX) assuming a notebook PC are connected to the built-in SATA port. But test. The 2.5-inch HDD was also verified when placed in an external case (made by Satechi) with a USB 3.0 connection.
What is the simple read / write performance?
First of all, I would like to measure the read / write performance of each drive using "CrystalDiskMark". The test condition uses the default 1GiB x 5.
[SSD / 3.5 "HDD / 2.5" HDD speed]
Measured value of SATA SSD (PX-512M5Pro) (connected to mother's SATA)
Measured value of 3.5 inch HDD (ST8000VN0022) (connected to mother SATA)
Measured value of 2.5 inch HDD (WD20SPZX) (connected to mother SATA)
[Network drive (DS918 +) speed]
Measured value when connecting to Gigabit LAN
Read / write performance of 2.5 inch HDD (WD20SPZX) in UBB3.0 external HDD case
I had to use a slightly older SSD for the verification machine, but since the sequential read exceeds 520MB / sec, it is not the fastest, but it is not so slow. On the other hand, the NAS network drive has a maximum of 120MB / sec even with a gigabit LAN connection. It turned out that this number is slightly slower than the 2.5-inch HDD prepared this time.
At this point, the result was somehow visible, but let's actually measure it using evidence, actual games, etc. from the theory.
Validated in the game
The speed feeling of Gigabit NAS is "1.1 to 1.2 times that of 2.5 inch HDD, 1.5 to 2.4 times that of SSD"
First of all, I would like to use the official bench of "FINAL FANTASY XIV: Guren's Liberator" to get an overview of speed.
Let's compare the loading time displayed at the end of the bench. Since it is the total loading time when the scene is switched during the benchmark, the shorter it is, the more comfortable it is.
The image quality is set to "highest quality" and the resolution is set to 1,920 x 1,080 dots. Benchmark is performed 5 times and the median value for 5 loading times is compared.
FFXIV bench loading time
The loading time becomes shorter in the order of the fastest sequential read of CrystalDiskMark. The higher the sequential read performance of CryslalDiskMark, the shorter the time, but the gigabit LAN connection and the performance of the 2.5-inch HDD were almost the same, but the actual game loading was on the gigabit LAN than on the 2.5-inch HDD. It's about 8 seconds slow.
Let's introduce the verification results in the actual game.
Battlefield V
The first one to introduce is "Battlefield V". Verify with DX12 mode without DXR, image quality "highest" & full HD setting. We measured the time from the start to the display of the first menu and the time to resume the play of "Last Tiger" for single player (using the save point where the movie does not appear at the start of the stage).
Waiting time for "Battlefield V"
Looking at the results, assuming that the waiting time when installing on SSD is 1, 3.5 inch HDD is about 1.2, 2.5 inch is about 1.5, Gigabit LAN network drive is 1.8, and so on. A beautiful order has been created. Compared to HDD, it is 1.5 times compared to 3.5 inch HDD, 1.2 times compared to 2.5 inch HDD, 1.1 times compared to 2.5 inch HDD with USB3.0 connection, and so on.
Regardless of the game you play heavy, it may be acceptable depending on the environment and conditions.
By the way, some Origin games couldn't be installed on a network drive (Apex Legends is one example). Battlefield V was a title that could be installed, but I also experienced losing track of where it was installed depending on the state of the internet. As far as I tried this time, the Origin title seems to be unsuitable for introduction to network drives.
BIOHAZARD RE: 2
Origin's game is a little difficult, so let's verify it with the game distributed on Steam from here.
First is "BIOHAZARD RE: 2". I set it to full HD & highest image quality, but only antialiasing was FXAA + TAA. The time from the start of the game until the title screen appears and the time until the save data was selected and the play started were measured.
Waiting time for "BIOHAZARD RE: 2"
The waiting time itself is shorter than BFV, but the rate of increase in waiting time based on SSD is higher than BFV.
Compared with various HDDs, it is 1.6 times compared with 3.5 inch HDD, 1.2 times compared with 2.5 inch HDD, and 1.18 times compared with 2.5 inch HDD with USB3.0 connection.
Sequential reads on 2.5-inch HDDs have been shown to be slower when connected via USB 3.0 than when connected via SATA, but the game wait time hasn't changed that much. Since it is a stopwatch measurement, the error cannot be completely eliminated, but the fact that the USB3.0 connection has a shorter waiting time than the NAS connection with fast sequential read means that passing through the file sharing protocol is a bottleneck. it is conceivable that.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Next is "Shadow of the Tomb Raider". DirectX12 mode, image quality "highest" & full HD set. We measured the time from clicking the "Launch" button on the launcher until the main menu was displayed, and from there to continue and restarting play.
Waiting time for "Shadow of the Tomb Raider"
Looking at the results, the waiting time is significantly extended in an environment slower than the 2.5-inch HDD. Especially the waiting time at the time of continue seems to be very long. This is probably because the data referenced by the game is very large.
Looking at the speed ratio of NAS, it was 1.6 times based on 3.5 inch HDD standard, 1.1 times based on 2.5 inch HDD standard, and 1.08 times based on 2.5 inch HDD standard with USB 3.0 connection.
Monster Hunter: World
The last game to try is "Monster Hunter: World". The image quality was set to "highest" & full HD, and the time from the start of the game until the title screen appeared and the time from the creation of the meeting place to the start of play were measured.
Waiting time for "Monster Hunter: World"
The trend in the results is the same as the games I've tried so far, but note that the latency isn't too long when placed on a network drive.
Looking at the speed ratio of NAS, it is 1.3 times based on 3.5 inch HDD standard, 1.1 times based on 2.5 inch HDD standard, and 1.1 times based on 2.5 inch HDD standard with USB3.0 connection. There seems to be a considerable difference in waiting time depending on the design of the game.
Roughly summarizing the verification results of the above four titles, it seems that the market price is 1.3 to 1.6 times that of a 3.5-inch HDD and 1.1 to 1.2 times that of a 2.5-inch HDD. Aside from the comparison with the 3.5-inch HDD, some people may feel that the speed when compared with the 2.5-inch HDD is "not so much".
iSCSI can be improved a little more
Now that we've verified it so far, I'd like to think about "how to make it a little faster".
Looking at the results so far, it is thought that the increase in latency is due to the throughput of Gigabit LAN and the protocol of Windows file sharing (CIFS). So I would like to try using iSCSI without CIFS. If you use iSCSI connection, you can connect only one client at a time, but there is no problem if you limit it to game installation.
There are two types of network drives that use iSCSI: file-based and block devices.
The former is a type that creates a virtual drive in a RAID array connected to the NAS and reads and writes the contents, and the latter is a type that shares a single drive with the iSCSI protocol. The latter is better in theory, but if all the drives are assigned to the RAID array like this time, it is necessary to erase the array once and rearrange the configuration, so there is some difficulty in performance, but This time, I used the former file-based method.
If you leave it to the wizard of "iSCSI Manager" of DS918 + and proceed with the default settings, the file-based drive (LUN) will be set. The capacity can be set as you like, so I secured 2TB for the game.
Call iSCSI Manager from the DS918 + settings page. Create a new Target from the "Target" tab on the left. If there is no particular reason for the name and IQN, use the values you leave as they are. You can leave the items after this to the basics
If there is something to note, this screen. Since "Location" is the location where the actual iSCSI drive is placed, select the RAID array created first. Capacity is your preference. When Thin Provisioning is set, it becomes "Secure in RAID as much as used", but this time it was turned off.
Next is the setting on the Windows 10 side that uses the iSCSI drive. In Cortana, type "iSCSI" to recall the "iSCSI Initiator" settings. Go to the "Search" tab-> "Search Portal" and enter the IP address of the NAS (the default port is fine).
If the IP address is correct, you should see the iSCSI address starting with "iqn" in the "Target" tab. After selecting it, click "Connect", make sure that "Add this connection to the list of favorite targets" is checked, and then click "OK".
When you reach this point, open "Disk Management" and the iSCSI drive on the DS918 + should look like an HDD that you just bought and connected. After that, you can initialize and format it in the usual way. Let's finish setting the Steam library folder etc.
Let's compare the waiting time when using a network drive using CIFS and the waiting time when using iSCSI. The conditions are exactly the same as the above test.
FFXIV bench loading time
Waiting time for "Battlefield V"
Waiting time for "BIOHAZARD RE: 2"
Waiting time for "Shadow of the Tomb Raider"
Waiting time for "Monster Hunter: World"
I couldn't set the Origin game folder on the network drive, but if I use iSCSI, no error will occur, so there is no need to create a junction. Although I did not add it to the verification this time, I was able to confirm that Apex Legends, which cannot be installed with a normal network drive, could be installed normally.
As for the essential speed, the result was slightly higher than that of the network drive. However, the loading time of the FFXIV bench has been extended, so the effect will depend on the design of the game. It was confirmed that the overhead of the CIFS protocol was eliminated by using iSCSI, and the overall usability was improved.
If you improve the network environment, will it be interesting in the future?
This is the end of verification.
The bottom line is, as I wrote at the beginning, if you have a notebook that has only a 2.5-inch bay, or a lightweight notebook that has no room for additional drives, you can use it via a gigabit wired LAN.
It would be sufficient to use the NAS as a backup for the game itself or as a "save destination if you do not want to uninstall the game" in case you want to play again later. By the way, in this case, it is better to mount it as a network drive and register the Steam library folder → use the game folder move function of Steam to move back and forth between the internal storage and the NAS, rather than just copying the file.
Also, this time I tried using Gigabit LAN, but there is also a way to use NAS compatible with 10 Gigabit LAN, which has become cheaper recently.
For NAS compatible with 10 Gigabit LAN, we have previously published a verification in combination with SSD. In this case, in addition to achieving a performance of 1.2GB / s over the network, the FINAL FANTASY XIV benchmark also achieves a value close to that of a local SSD. Currently, 10 Gigabit LAN is quite expensive, but I would like to expect future price reductions.
[Production cooperation: Synology]
[Purchase on Amazon]
Synology DiskStation DS918 +
WD40EFRX-RT2
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Related Links
🔗 DiskStation DS918 + Product Information
https://www.synology.com/ja-jp/products/DS918+
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