[Samba] An Interesting Issue in Samba Performance

[Nicholas Butler]

Okay Ive had a day of it today , and I thought I would share this little 
support event experienced today.

A Client site of mine runs Samba 2.2.8a connecting to a series of 
Windows XP boxes via a Netgear Switch/Hub.

Earlier in the week they reported that certain applications, most 
notorously Symantec ACT were performing at super slow speeds.

A non site investigation showed that any file opened from the Server , 
copied to the desktop client was being copied at super slow speeds, as 
if all the bandwidth on the network had gone.

Checking configuration of the smb.conf and local machines proved no use 
at all and for a part of the hour I scratched my head as I tried to 
understand what was slowing down all file open, copy and move 
performance over the network.

Since local file activity ( on the server or client ) was more than 
adequate I was non plussed, until I reasoned that the only other device 
between Client and Server was the Network Switch.

A Quick power cycle of the Netgear switch later , and the performance 
was back where it should have been !

Just a  salutory tail to tell really  since the problem was neither 
Server or Client based, but the architecture was clearly malfunctioning.

Does anyone know of a test I could have carried out in order to trouble 
shoot that particular issue ?