[Samba] Maximum samba file transfer speed on gigabit...

[bjquinn at seidal.com]

> You should be able to do a crude test by creating a large file ("dd
> if=/dev/random of=test.dat bs=1048576 count=100" will create a 100MB
> test file) and then timing how long it takes to read the file back
> ("time dd if=test.dat of=/dev/null")  That'll tell you if your hard
> drives are configured properly and reading at full speed.  Use a larger
> file for a more accurate test.

Well, my 4 drive 15k RPM SAS RAID 10 configuration is performing slightly
more poorly than my single drive 10k RPM SATA (~50 MB/s vs. ~55MB/s in
both Bonnie and the dd test you suggested), but I guess that's the least
of my concerns right now.  (Besides this being the wrong list for such a
concern, but thanks for your suggestions!)  Although my maximum file
transfer speed seems to be maxing out at about 50 MB/s (looking like now
hard drive transfer speed is the bottleneck), which is almost exactly the
speed I'm getting from the Windows server, I am still able to run these
queries in FoxPro in around 10-12 seconds from the Windows server and
around 55 seconds for the Samba server.  A large Excel file (~45MB) opens
up in around 6-7 seconds over the Windows share and in 15 or so seconds
over the Samba share, looking like there's a big pause before it actually
starts loading the file into Excel.  Does this shed any light on the
issue?

> I wouldn't think there'd be a huge overhead, but in my own experience
> it's certainly noticeable (as compared to say FTP.)  Don't forget that
> if the PC on the other end isn't capable of receiving the data at full
> speed, then it doesn't matter how fast the server is.

I've already noticed significant differences between client computers, but
right now the computers I'm testing as client computers are comparable to
the server from a hardware specification standpoint, differing only in
that they run Windows 2000.  One odd thing is that the computers that are
capable only of transferring files from the server at a significantly
slower rate (whether Windows or Samba) don't seem to have a significant
degradation in FoxPro query time or Excel spreadsheet loading.

-BJ Quinn