Mavericks Server: Poor File Sharing performance.

Hello.

Over the past week I've been running a series of tests on a new Mavericks Server, focusing on File Sharing performance and I'm getting horrible results. Here are my testing details:

- dedicated gigabit internal network (gigabit managed switched, gigabit router, gigabit ethernet cables, etc., all dedicated for this testing)

- Test server #1 (Maverick Server 10.9.2 on a 2009 Xserve, 24 GB RAM, bonded ethernet, AFP Share Point on a dedicated Data Drive [bay 3 of Xserve])

- Test server #2 (Leopard Server 10.5.8 on a 2008 Xserve, 10 GB RAM, bonded ethernet, AFP Share Point on a RAID-1 Data Drive [external FireWire 800 RAID-1 enclosure])

- Test client #1 (Mavericks 10.9.2 on 2011 Mac mini, 16 GB RAM, SSD HD)

- Test client #2 (Mountain Lion 10.8.5 on 2009 iMac, 8 GB RAM, eSATA HD)

All machines are connected to the managed, gigabit switch via individual gigabit ethernet cables, etc. I've swaped out cables, etc. to rule out "bad cables", etc.. The Leopard Server Xserve was set up years ago (in 2008) and is a clone of a current production Xserve (running many things, including DNS, Open Directory, File Sharing, SMB, Web services, Software Update services, RADIUS, NetBoot, etc.). The Mavericks Server is a clean install on the 2009 Xserve, with only DNS, Open Directory (Master) and File Sharing (single AFP). I've re-built the Mavericks Server a number of times now in the hopes that I'd "messed something up" in the setup. I've also run the same tests on the Mavericks Server using an external 6G eSATA drive (connected via a PCIe dedicated eSATA hardware controller).

The first thing I did was test all drives on the local machines themselves to record drive performance on the individual machines (and everything was as expected—eSATA drive on 2009 Xserve via hardware controller were 200+ MB/s read/writes, regular eSATA drives on both Xserves were ~100 MB/s, SSD was ~400 MB/s read/writes, etc.—did mutiple tests using various software (AJA, BackMagic, QuickBench, manually copying a 10GB DMG and timing it, manually copy a 30GB directory of random files [videos, office docs, JPGs, text files, HTML fies, InDesign files, etc.) and everything was "normal".

Then, I ran the same tests, but over the network—my results are, on average, as follow:

1. AFP mount (via RAID-1 drive) on the Leopard Server from both clients

Average results: READ = 100 MB/s; WRITE 70 MB/s

2. AFP mount (via eSATA drive/PCIe hardware controller) on Mavericks Server from both clients

Average results: READ = 45 MB/s; WRITE 100 MB/s

3. AFP mount (via internal eSATA drive) on Mavericks Server from both clients

Average results: READ = 45 MB/s; WRITE 100 MB/s

I have been running these tests for the past 2 days—I've tried everything I can think of, rebuilt things, swapped out cables, HDs, etc. and the results above are pretty much the same every time—READ speeds from Mavericks Server are just super slow. It's not a network issue because the network itself has no issue maintaining 100 MB/s speeds (which is pretty much the average ceiling on my gigabit network, when taking into account the AFP overhead, etc.). Mavericks just peaks out on the READ speeds at less than 50 MB/s. On a small/short file transfer (less than 1GB), it'll hit the 100 MB/s, but if the transfer last more than 30 seconds, it quickly drops down to under 50 MB/s.

At this point, I've tried everything I can think of (except re-installing Mountain Lion on the server) and I'm pulling my hair out.

Really hoping I've overlooked something or am doing something wrong (though, I've run these same sorta tests over the years on our servers and they've always been pretty consistent/accurate). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kristin.