SAMBA Really Slow

[MCCALL,DON (HP-USA,ex1)]

Hi John,
NT esp, and windows as well, when it is copying a file, sends a LOT 
of directory intensive requests over before it actually starts moving 
the file.  The more files being moved, the longer it is going to take
for samba to do the prep work that NT asks it to; esp if the files are 
in a directory that contains a LOT of files to begin with, or the filenames
require name mangling, etc.
Of course any level of debugging turned on in your smb.conf is going to 
exacerbate the problem, so check that as well.
Sorry,
Don
-----Original Message-----
From: John Supplee [mailto:John at rediscov.com]
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 12:24 PM
To: Samba mailing list (E-mail)
Subject: RE: SAMBA Really Slow


It's been awhile since I posted on this thread because I have been busy with
other things.  Unfortunately, I don't owe anyone on this list a beer as I am
still having the problem.  I originally started this thread as a problem
with MS Visual Foxpro, but I don't think it is an issue with VFP.  The
problem seems to be that SAMBA is taking a very long time to serve requests
for file information.

The following two tests I performed are symptomatic of my problem:

1. Copying approx. 400 mostly small files using Windows Explorer I get the
following results.

  FTP
  1:22 (5 secs of this is preparation)

  Samba
  2:15 (1:00 is preparation!)

In the case of copying files from SAMBA windows explorer sits there
processing files (i.e. it has not started copying) for about a minute with a
"Processing..." message.  I assume it is gathering information on each file
(like its size).  Also note that the the smbd process consumes 95-98% of CPU
time during this preparation stage and then drops significantly once files
start copying.

2. Copying one large file from windows explorer.

  FTP
  0:30

  Samba
  0:17

No problems with a single file copy.


Is SAMBA just really slow at processing large number of files or am I
missing something in the configuration (my smb.conf is attached)?


John R. Supplee
Programming Manager
Re:discovery Software, Inc. <http://www.rediscov.com>
Charlottesville, VA
USA