[Samba] Samba and Multiple NICs

[AndyLiebman at aol.com]

I>n a message dated 4/4/2004 11:13:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
clint at typhoon.org >writes:
>Andy,

>I'd have to say you've got yourself a bit of a conundrum.  Basically at
>this point, if you want to double the capacity your server can output, I
>would recommend segmenting your network into two VLANs (or separate
>switches if your switches aren't capable of doing VLANs, although any
>switch worth it's snuff is).
>
>However, before I go into more detail about how to actually accomplish
>that, what kind of hardware is this running on?  I'd be seriously
>concerned that you'd be wasting a lot of time and effort if your
>hardware isn't capable of capping two GigE cards.  I'd attach one
>machine with a GigE interface via a crossover cable to the second GigE
>interface on your Samba server and leave the other interface connected
>to the switch you have now.  I'd then try to cap the interface from the
>side connected to the switch and from the side connected to another
>computer via the crossover and see if you can actually exceed greater
>than the speed one GigE is going to give you (or at least what you were
>getting previously).  Also, some details on your hardware would be
>helpful.
>
>Clint

Clint, 

Thanks for your reply. 

What I want to do is straightforward in concept (perhaps difficult in 
practice, though I doubt it). 

I want to put two Gigabit Ethernet Cards in one Linux server -- and have each 
card talk to half the Windows workstations in my place. In part, I'm looking 
for a way to get more data in and out of my server (the storage part can 
support it). Each workstation is running a video editing application and it's 
looking for about 4 to 4.5 MB/sec of data. The data is time critical. It HAS to 
arrive when needed, or the editing application stops. So far I'm doing okay with 
just one network segment, but I think I can add a few additional workstations 
if I split the network -- because my storage subsystem is capable of doing 
well over 100 MB/sec -- and that's a lot more than I'm going to push down one 
Gigabit Ethernet pipe. 

In part, I want to configure the two Ethernet cards differently so that one 
can talk to workstations that are optimized for "Gigabit Ethernet and Jumbo 
Frames" and the other can talk to workstations that only have "normal Ethernet" 
capabilities. 

I'm NOT looking to get more data to a single workstation. I'm looking to get 
the maximum number of workstations that can all receive the 4 to 4.5 MB/sec 
that they need. 

By the way, my Server hardware is: 
3.06 Ghz single processor Xeon, 1 GB RAM, Intel Gigabit nics, fast RAID 
arrays, two switches capable of supporting Jumbo Frames. 

Andy