M1 and NAS disconnects?

Is anyone using Apple silicon and a NAS (QNAP, Synology, etc.), mounted via SMB over 10GbE and experiencing lots of disconnects? I understand that Apple's implementation of SMB isn't great but what I've been hearing sounds like this disconnect problem is worse on Apple silicon. I'm starting to get nervous about the Mac Studio we just ordered. Would love to hear other people's experiences with similar setups to get a sense of what's in store for us.

Thanks,
-Terry

There are lots of client-side SMB network tuning parameters that can affect NAS performance. Thomas Berglund investigated how these affected FCP performance. However I would be very cautious about adjusting a bunch of network tuning parameters: fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/3151...work?start=40#109131

Lumaforge used to recommend NFS over SMB for FCP, at least for the library. I don't know if that has changed in current versions.

QNAP has an NFS version over Thunderbolt 3 that is FCP specific as well. It’s supposed to help with the performance. I don't have any details but our network engineer told me that.

It’s still faster to have the library on the internal system SSD or an external SSD and just reference the footage on the NAS than it is to have everything on the NAS.

Thanks for the reply joema. I have seen that thread with the tuning info from Thomas as well as many others during my searches. On Intel Macs there is an nvram command that enables a "server performance mode" that makes many of these tuning changes.

$ sudo nvram boot-args="serverperfmode=1 $(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | cut -f 2-)"

See here for a nice list of the sysctl changes: gist.github.com/davidalger/a3afa2410a40ce6ae59d4e6a3b18e5c7

This nvram command greatly enhanced the responsiveness of our SMB over 10GbE QNAPs but unfortunately it apparently doesn't work for Apple silicon Macs.

We're almost exclusively using FX-6 4k footage and with a Mac Studio Ultra running FCP 10.6.5 and macOS 13.1, we're seeing sporadic, random smb disconnects of our 10GbE QNAPs, especially with larger libraries. Everything is stored on the NAS so libraries can be accessed from a couple edit machines. Disconnects also happen, but much less frequently, on an iMac running Monterey. I think the above nvram tuning helped.

I'm curious, for those connecting to a NAS via smb, have you noticed the desktop icon changing position? I've recently become aware of this when hiding FCP to do something in the Finder, I see the volume's icon is in a slightly different spot. Now I'm wondering if the NAS is being disconnected but sometimes quickly reconnected and the icon is in a different spot. Since FCP is usually full screen, we don't see the desktop.

Also, apparently 13.2 broke smb if shares have custom icons. We don't use custom icons but some libraries do have emojis in event names. I don't think our disconnects are related to this, but curious if others that are experiencing smb disconnects are NOT using emojis in names inside FCP.

A quick question Terry. Are you getting system notifications that it was incorrectly unmounted even when it appears on the desktop?

Hi Tom. No, I've never seen a notification when I notice the desktop icon has moved. That's what made me think the disconnect/reconnect happens fast enough that it's inside some timeout window before a notification appears. Purely speculation on my part.

It's possible that the SMB disconnects you're experiencing are related to the macOS settings for SMB connections, which can sometimes cause intermittent connection issues. The changes you made to the NVRAM settings may have helped to improve the stability of the connections, but there could be other factors at play as well.
Regarding the desktop icon changing position, it's possible that this is related to the SMB disconnects. When a network share is disconnected and then reconnected, it's possible that the desktop icon position could change as well. However, this could also be a separate issue related to the macOS desktop or Finder settings.
As for the issue with custom icons and emojis in share names, this could be a factor in some cases, but it's unlikely to be the root cause of the SMB disconnects you're experiencing. If you're still having trouble with the connections, you may want to try some additional troubleshooting steps, such as resetting the SMB settings, checking for firmware updates on the QNAPs, or trying a different network cable or switch.