[Samba] Add Printer Wizard and Slowness

[Jeffrey M. Hardy]

Hello all,

We have a Samba box set up as our primary campus print server, running
CUPS 1.1.19 and Samba 3.3.0.  Our primary interface for adding printers
is the Add Printer Wizard.  I am finding very slow response while
adding/modifying/deleting printers.

Making changes to any of the settings for a printer (default tray,
driver, etc) can take 20-40 seconds or will sometimes timeout, requiring
a Samba restart before any of the printers will show again.  Sometimes I
can avoid this by restarting Samba ahead of time, which kills all the
active Samba connections to the server (usually around 50).  I can then
get several minutes of acceptable response time.

One of my thoughts was plaque in our ntdrivers.tdb file which is loaded
with drivers that are no longer in use.  I was using the CUPS prescribed
cupsaddsmb script to set up Windows drivers until I had unending
problems finding ppds that worked across operating systems.  As a
result, the .tdb files are filled with a few hundred drivers named after
queues that don't exist, along with the normal dozen or so real drivers
straight from the vendor.  I cannot delete these from Windows and am
working up a Perl script to do so using the TDB_File module.

There is plenty of RAM and load on the server is very low (Pentium 3,
1.0 GHz).  No problems with actual printing or driver downloads, and we
are currently at 100 printers (eventually 200).  Is it possible that tdb
file plaque is to blame for our APW problems?  If not, any suggestions
as to what could cause this?

===========================
Here is testparm output:

Load smb config files from /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
Processing section "[printers]"
Processing section "[print$]"
Processing section "[drivers]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_DOMAIN_MEMBER
Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions
 
# Global parameters
[global]
        workgroup = POTSDAM
        netbios name = PRINTING
        server string = Print Server
        security = DOMAIN
        password server = ZEUS
        log level = 3
        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        max log size = 50
        deadtime = 15
        printcap name = cups
        addprinter command = /usr/local/bin/smbaddprinter
        deleteprinter command = /usr/local/bin/smbdelprinter
        invalid users = root
        printer admin = @pradmins
        hosts allow = 137.143.
        printing = cups
        veto files = /.AppleDouble/.bin/.AppleDesktop/Network Trash
Folder/
 
[printers]
        comment = All Printers
        path = /var/spool/samba
        write list = @pradmins
        guest ok = Yes
        printable = Yes
        browseable = No
 
[print$]
        comment = Printer Drivers for Windows
        path = /etc/samba/drivers
        write list = @pradmins
        guest ok = Yes
 
[drivers]
        comment = Vendor Driver Paks
        path = /etc/samba/prdrivers
        write list = @pradmins
        create mask = 0775
        directory mask = 0775


-Thanks,
Jeff