Can Samba scale with NT_Terminal_Server? (was: Samba and WinTS / WinDD)

[Olaf Dreyer]

Hi,

On Fri, 17 Sep 1999, Charles N. Owens wrote:

> I'm wondering if the unique (?) way NT Terminal Server (NT_TS) connects
> to Samba is a problem.  Samba seems to spawn a separate process per
> connecting client.  With "normal" single-user stations (Win3.x, Win9x,
> WinNT), this results in a process per user.  But with NT_TS (and other
> related Citrix derivatives) we have many users coming from a single
> client machine, all of which get handled by a _single_ Samba process
> (one per NT_TS server box).  It is not unreasonable to expect that there
> may then be 50 to 150 users being handled by a single Samba process
> (depending on the horsepower of the NT_TS server).

You can set "nt smb support = no", but this will brake win 98 clients, or
you can change one entry in WinTS-Registry after installing Service-Pack 4
for WinTS. This is probably the better way, because Microsoft recommends
setting this parameter for various problems (look at the knowledge base).

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Rdr\Parameters\
MultipleUsersOnConnection=0x000000

> So... any other NT_TS users doing the Samba thing with better luck than
> I?

We have a WinTS/metaframe system running here. We use a Samba 2.0.5a
Fileserver and a NT PDC. 
We also have a lot of WinCenter Servers using NIS to authenticate their
users against Linux-Servers running Samba and NIS, we don't have the
NIS-thing for WinTS/Metaframe :( . But we will use Samba as PDC as soon as
possible. We have 40 to 60 users and the system is running stable. We had
a lot of problems with "oplock breaks", but since we reorganized some part
of the network they are gone. 

> And, of course, I feel duty-bound to point out that were NT_TS and
> Metaframe correctly, or at least more robustly implemented, they'd be
> able to with-stand non-ideal behavior from Samba (assuming this is
> occurring) without going belly-up.  Said another way, it's not Samba's
> fault that there are some fundamental flaws in NT_TS that cause it to
> crash when tickled.  Samba is only responsible for the tickling.

WinCenter ( NT 3.51 ) was more stable. We are missing the NIS-Thing, and
the NCD Wincenter for WinTS/Metaframe ( its a Citrix product ) is known to
be buggy. :(

One Point which always make problems are the clients. On the Metaframe
Server there will be created a temp-directory for each connection. If this
connections disconnects abnormal, eg the user get a blue screen on his
workstation, this directory stays there. It won't be deleted even after a
reboot of the WinTS. If someone later gets the same connection ID he will
get this temporary directory assigned, the files probably owned by someone
else...

Best Regards 
Olaf Dreyer