[jcifs] Performance Issue with jcifs and NetApp

[Torsten Uhr]

Hi André,

thanks for Your quick reply.

> Is that what happens ?
Exactly.

>"NetApp fileserver" (whatever that is),
see: http://www.netapp.com/de/products/protocols/nas/cifs.aspx

> do you have any way, on the NetApp server, to trace what is going on and see what the difference is when accessing these files from the one or the other type of client ?

I have pleased our customer to contact their operations to check out for any logs. At the moment their are only connection information but no logs.

> Or alternatively, on the client system, to trace what is going on between that client and that NetApp server ?
I have told our customer to set the property 'jcifs.util.loglevel=10'. Are there any other tasks to enable logging in jcifs?
If i receive any further information, I will send it to You.

with best regards

Torsten Uhr

Email: torsten.uhr at sql-ag.de
Web  : www.transconnect-online.de
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SQL Projekt AG
Franklinstr. 25 a
01069 Dresden

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: André Warnier [mailto:aw at ice-sa.com] 
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 29. Mai 2013 09:58
An: jcifs at lists.samba.org
Cc: TransConnect
Betreff: Re: [jcifs] Performance Issue with jcifs and NetApp

TransConnect wrote:
> Hallo,
> 
> we are using jcifs (1.3.17) to list a folder on a NetApp filer (OnTap
> 8.1.P1) under Linux (64Bit).
> All works without any error but the listing runs over 90 seconds to 
> get the list of approx. 100 file names.
> For testing purposes we used the jcifs example ListFiles adding 
> NtlmPasswordAuthentication using domain name with the same results.
> 
> Mounting that share on the same machine works as fast as expected.
> 
> We have tried to set the following properties:
> 
> jcifs.smb.lmCompatibility=2
> jcifs.smb.client.useExtendedSecurity=false
> jcifs.resolveOrder=LMHOSTS,WINS,DNS
> 
> but there is no difference in response time. If we try to read a file 
> the operation will run over 13 minutes.
> 
> Are there any other options to try to increase the performance? Are 
> there known problems accessing NetApp in current jcifs release?
> 
> Thanks for Your help.
> Torsten
> 
Hi.

So let me try to get this straight :

You have

- on the one hand, a "NetApp fileserver" (whatever that is), which offers a "CIFS share" 
containing files that you want to access.

- on the other hand, a Linux system as the client, which needs to access these files located on the NetApp server.

Then,

- if you "mount" the NetApp share as a CIFS filesystem on the Linux client and access the remote files via this mountpoint, the access is fast (both for listing the files and for reading them)

- but if you access the same files, from the same Linux client, using a Java program and the jcifs library, (and without going through this local mountpoint) the access is slow (both for listing the files and for reading them)

Is that what happens ?

If the above is correct, a question : do you have any way, on the NetApp server, to trace what is going on and see what the difference is when accessing these files from the one or the other type of client ?
Or alternatively, on the client system, to trace what is going on between that client and that NetApp server ?