Benchmark SMB share through VPN vs SSH Tunnel

Benchmark SMB share through VPN vs SSH Tunnel
=============================================



Benchmarking throughput was measured with a dd command.

timeout --signal=SIGINT 30 dd if=somefile of=/dev/null

For each 30 second sample a different file was chosen so caching doesn't affect the results.



WITH COMPRESSION
================
(CLIENT 200Mbps+ down bandwidth, SERVER 55Mbps down bandwidth, 8Mbps up bandwidth)



SMB share cifs mounted read only to remote address through OpenVPN PPTP over UDP, 5 samples @ 30 seconds each using dd
38522880 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9714 s, 1.3 MB/s
39014400 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.993 s, 1.3 MB/s
39014400 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9924 s, 1.3 MB/s
39014400 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9871 s, 1.3 MB/s
38952960 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9836 s, 1.3 MB/s

OpenVPN ovpn client file
------------------------
client
dev tun
proto udp
remote myserver.com 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
auth-user-pass
auth-nocache
persist-key
persist-tun
verb 3
comp-lzo
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[CA Cert]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>
<cert>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[Client Cert]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</cert>
<key>
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
[Client Key]
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>



SMB share cifs mounted read only to localhost through SSH tunnel over TCP, 5 samples @ 30 seconds each using dd
39321600 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.983 s, 1.3 MB/s
40734720 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.9942 s, 1.4 MB/s
81715200 bytes (82 MB) copied, 29.9837 s, 2.7 MB/s
40734720 bytes (41 MB) copied, 30.0122 s, 1.4 MB/s
40673280 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.991 s, 1.4 MB/s

SSH connection specific options
-------------------------------
-C
CompressionLevel 6
-f
-L localhost:445:localhost:445
-N



WITHOUT COMPRESSION
===================
(CLIENT 200Mbps+ down 50Mbps+ up bandwidth, SERVER 55Mbps down 8Mbps up bandwidth)



SMB share cifs mounted read only to remote address through OpenVPN PPTP over UDP, 5 samples @ 30 seconds each using dd
38522880 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9814 s, 1.3 MB/s
39075840 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9995 s, 1.3 MB/s
39075840 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9982 s, 1.3 MB/s
39014400 bytes (39 MB) copied, 30.0036 s, 1.3 MB/s
39014400 bytes (39 MB) copied, 29.9749 s, 1.3 MB/s

OpenVPN ovpn client file
------------------------
client
dev tun
proto udp
remote myserver.com 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
auth-user-pass
auth-nocache
persist-key
persist-tun
verb 3
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[CA Cert]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>
<cert>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[Client Cert]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</cert>
<key>
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
[Client Key]
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>



SMB share cifs mounted read only to localhost through SSH tunnel over TCP, 5 samples @ 30 seconds each using dd
40734720 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.9302 s, 1.4 MB/s
40734720 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.9505 s, 1.4 MB/s
40673280 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.9522 s, 1.4 MB/s
40734720 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.9636 s, 1.4 MB/s
40734720 bytes (41 MB) copied, 29.9383 s, 1.4 MB/s

SSH connection specific options
-------------------------------
-f
-L localhost:445:localhost:445
-N



CONCLUSION
==========

If you're watching videos over the network I recommend simply using an SSH tunnel rather than using OpenVPN.  Use OpenVPN when you have no other choices.