Performance Tuning advice

[servis at purdue.edu]

Note, I can't help but I can point.

You could look in the archives of this list since this seems to be a
common subject.  Last month had some good traffic on this subject.
http://samba.anu.edu.au/listproc/samba/.

Brian

*- Jim Morris wrote about "Performance Tuning advice"
> Hi all!
> 
> I've been an avid Samba (and Linux) devotee for years now, and am very
> familiar with its operation. I am having a fit right now trying to
> optimize performance of a new network server I am setting up for a
> customer - I have to deliver it on Monday.
> 
> Basically, what I am finding right now is that performance for READ
> operations on the Samba server (1.9.18p10) is running at about 60% of
> the speed of a Win95 share, with the same ethernet controller on both
> the Win95 "server" (funny to think of, eh!), and the new RedHat 5.2
> Linux server, running Samba 1.9.18p10.
> 
> The kind of times I am seeing are like this:
> 
> TEST Operation:
> 
>  "xcopy /s" of directory tree of 458MB in 4400 files, and 650
> subdirectories.
> 
> Client machine:
> 
>  Winbook XL (P200mmx), running Win95 OSR2.5, LinkSys Combo PCMCIA
> adapter.
> 
> Network connections:
> 
>  All 10BaseT, on a single 5-port hub.
> 
> 
>            Server             |   Read   |   Write  
>                               | (mm:ss)  |  (mm:ss)
> ------------------------------|----------|-----------
> 1. Dual PII-400               |  18:44   |  12:39
>    DEC "Tulip" ethernet card  |          |
>    Linux 2.0.36 (Redhat 5.2)  |407KB/sec | 603KB/sec
>    Samba 1.9.18p10 (RPM)      |          |
>    Ultra2 SCSI drive subsystem|          |
>    (Mylex DAC960 RAID cont, & |          |
>    Seagate Cheetah 10,000 RPM |          |
>    drives).                    |          |
> ------------------------------|----------|-----------
> 2. Cyrix 6x86-P166+           |  11:46   |  13:14
>    DEC "Tulip" ethernet card  |          |
>    Win95 OSR2                 |648KB/sec | 576KB/sec
>    EIDE (16.6MB/sec) drives   |          |
>    IBM Deskstar 5400RPM EIDE  |          |
> ------------------------------|----------|-----------
> 3. SAME machine as #2, but    |          |   Not
>    running Linux 2.0.35, and  |384KB/sec | Measured
>    Samba 1.9.18p7.            |          | 
>                               |          |
> -----------------------------------------------------
> 
> So the question comes, why am I seeing such low results with Samba?  I
> fully expect Win95 to possible be a LITTLE higher when nothing is being
> done on the PC, since it is essentially a "single minded" OS so to
> speak.  I know these numbers will fall down under a loaded situation.
> Regardless though, I would like to HOPE that a Dual PII-400 with 256MB
> of RAM and the most expensive SCSI drives money can buy can outperform
> my puny little 6x86-166 running Win95....  Also, the 6x86 box has about
> 1/2 the performance it does under Win95 when running Samba...
> 
> The "tuning" related (once I think *might* impact performance)
> parameters in my smb.conf currently are:
> 
> ---------------
> debug level = 1
> 
> dos filetimes = true
> default case = lower
> mangle case = no
> case sensitive = no
> preserve case = yes
> short preserve case = yes
> 
> socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_KEEPALIVE
> read prediction = yes
> ; keep alive = 30
> dead time = 15
> 
> locking = yes
> strict locking = no
> oplocks = true
> share modes = yes
> lock directory = /var/lock/samba
> -----------------
> 
> Thats all the tuning related parameters I see in there.
> 
> I sure hope someone on the list can offer me some advice!
> 
> I tried to get the  Samba book (Samba: Integrating Unix and Windows) in
> before I had to set this setver up.  I've had it on order from Computer
> Literacy for several weeks, and they still are out of stock on it -
> apparently SSC is in between printings or something.
> 
> Thanks for ANY help!