[Samba] Samba and Multiple NICs

[Alexander Sbitnev]

Hello AndyLiebman,

Monday, April 5, 2004, 5:23:43 AM, you wrote:

Aac> Hi, 

Aac> I'm a happy Samba user. I've been working sucessfully in Linux for the past 6
Aac> months. I've built a Linux Server with very fast storage and I'm connecting
Aac> it to many Windows XP "video editing workstations" via Gigabit Ethernet (all
Aac> NICs using Jumbo Frames, by the way). 

Aac> Now I want to see if I can increase my data flow in and out of the Server so
Aac> that more workstations to connect to it simultaneously. I'm pretty much maxing
Aac> out on the amount of data that can flow through a single Gigabit Ethernet
Aac> connection (from the Server to a single Gigabit Switch). So I'm wondering what's
Aac> involved in adding a second NIC to my Server and dividing my workstations into
Aac> two groups. 

Aac> Is this a difficult thing to configure? Would somebody be willing to tell me
Aac> what are the crucial settings that need to be made (in smb.conf, for example,
Aac> or in /etc/*.* stuff). Do I have to create subnets? 

Aac> I'm currently working on an internal network where all the workstations have
Aac> 192.168.1.XXX static addresses. These workstations occasionally connect to the
Aac> Internet through a Cable/DSL router that's also on the network and that
Aac> serves as the gateway. 

Aac> Is it possible to give my server two fixed IP addresses (one corresponding to
Aac> each NIC) and then connect each NIC to its own switch, which would then be
Aac> connected to half of the workstations? I tried this today and had no luck.

Aac> And how can I make it possible for each workstations to have access to the
Aac> Internet. Presumably, only one switch can be connected to the cable/dsl router
Aac> -- or else data traffic could go through the cable/dsl router to get from a
Aac> workstation to the Server. But I suppose that's the least of my worries.

Aac> I'm not looking for somebody else to do my homework. I've spent about 6 hours
Aac> today googling around trying to figure out what's required and I'm coming up
Aac> more confused with each article or discussion thread I read. 

Aac> I would sure appreciate it if somebody out there was willing to lend a hand.
Aac> I'm sure this is basic stuff to an IT guy, but I'm just working on this
Aac> networking stuff at a "hobby level" -- doing pretty well, but now a bit stumped.

Aac> By the way, does anybody know if this scenario is covered in the new Samba
Aac> cookbook? I'd be happy to purchase it tomorrow if I thought it would give me the
Aac> recipe to do what I'm trying to accomplish. 

Can't explain my solution in detail but i will try to give you right
direction. First of all take a look at the Advanced linux routing
howto. We did things similiar to your request but with two
FastEthernet interfaces. First of all we just install two interface
cards and give to it ips within the same network. 10.10.10.40 and
10.10.10.41 for example (both mask 255.0.0.0). Next we setup a routing like
that:

# Deleting ordinary routes
ip route del 10.0.0.0/8 dev eth0
ip route del 10.0.0.0/8 dev eth1
# Adding multipath route
ip route add 10.0.0.0/8 scope global nexthop via 10.10.10.40 dev eth0
   weight 1 nexthop via 10.10.10.41 dev eth1 weight 1
ip route flush cache

After that got something like connection balancing for OUTGOING
traffic over two our interfaces. It's just keeps balance of clients
over interfaces, but not the clients bandwidth. But it's better than
nothing. The more clients you have, the better balance you will
reach.

-- 
Best regards,
 Alexander                            mailto:shuras at dezcom.mephi.ru