[Samba] max concurrent CIFS connections

[Pseudomizer]

Hello,

 

I need some help please. I have been told from an administrator that Samba
does only support up to 3.000 concurrent CIFS connections and each
connections reserve 5MB of memory. 

 

If this is true that I would need 15GB of memory to support 3.000 concurrent
CIFS sessions how many people have this amount of memory in any server? 

 

The second argument which he used was and I quote him now:

 

"Approaches that increase the Samba architectural limit are judged to be in
violation of Microsoft patents and therefore cannot be implemented"

 

I think this guy is not telling the truth and due to this I am asking this
question over here. I hope that I write to the right dlist. So I would like
to know the following please:

 

-          What is the maximum limit for concurrent CIFS connections?

-          Does Samba really reserve 5MB per CIFS connection? 

-          Is there really a patent of Microsoft for 3.000 CIFS connections?
If yes, what is the solution for more users?

 

I need this information because my company is considering implementing Samba
to replace Microsoft NT4 servers and to do a server consolidation. But my
company has 7.000 users in the first location and 5.000 users in the second
location. If we want to place all home directories for all users on one
Samba server I would clearly get a problem if the restrictions above apply.

 

Any guidance would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Best regards,

 

Pseudomizer