Samba Performance (with large directories of images)

[David Collier-Brown]

Robert Seese wrote:
> One thing I should mention is that during the file copy I noticed
> performance problems with directories that had several files in them. I
> thought the problem was with windows nt but the processes that seem to be
> running the slowest hit these directories. By several files I mean 35,000+

Jeremy said:
! Ah - a directory containing 35,000 files !

	This is a tiny bit pessimal for imaging-system performance (;-))
	In a previous life, the Siemens imaging products ran quite
	slowly when directory sizes were much above normal: we therefor
	tended to generate file names like 99july28.926133754 and
	put them in directories named (surprise!) .../99/july/28/9261/

	The trick was to get a reasonable balance between depth of
	the directory tree and size of individual directories.
	To many directory entries forced us to read too much, too
	deep a tree caused us to have to open too many directories
	on our way to the file.  When plotted, it made a U-shaped curve
	with poor performance at either extreme.

	
--dave
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David Collier-Brown,  | Always do right. This will gratify some people
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