[Samba] Miserable read performance (factor ~60 too slow)

[Arno Schäfer]

Hi,

I am trying to migrate my files from a Windows XP Pro box to a new 
server running OpenSuSE 10.2/Linux 2.6.18 (x86_64) and Samba 3.0.25b.

The Server is a new Athlon 64 X2 4000+/1GB with two 400GB SATA disks in 
a software RAID1 configuration. The share file system is reiserfs on a 
350GB RAID1 partition.

I have a small LAN with three PCs on 100MBit Ethernet and a Laptop on 
WLAN on a 4 Port Switch/WLAN/DSL router.


I am experiencing extremely (an I really mean EXTREMELY) bad 
performance. It is so bad that it can not have anything to do with 
performance "tuning", it must be a configuration error somewhere.

Doing some comparisons, I find that

- copying a 700MB file from the CIFS share of the Windows XP box to a 
different Windows PC starts immediately and takes about two minutes.

- copying the same file via HTTP from the new Samba server takes a 
little more than one minute (10.5 MB/sec).

- copying the file from the Samba share varies hugely. It can take 
between 90 seconds and literally hours (!).

- sometimes it goes faster, but almost always the startup time is 
between 20 and 90 seconds, that is the time before the copying even begins.

- I have found repeatedly that when I am copying a file from the Samba 
share, and it goes extremely slow (estimated time 90 minutes), and I 
start copying a second file (from the same or a different PC), suddenly 
the copying speeds up to "normal" speed.

ifconfig does not show any collisions or errors, and as I said, copying 
via HTTP is extremely fast.

The Linux installation is as barebones as I could make it, no X11, no 
firewall (for now), no ZENWorks or AppArmor or anything. I already once 
reinstalled everything from scratch, to no avail.

Any ideas would be immensely appreciated, as I am seriously considering 
going back to Windows XP ;-)

Best Regards,

Arno


Here is my smb.conf:

[global]
         workgroup = MSHEIMNETZ
         printing = cups
         printcap name = cups
         printcap cache time = 750
         cups options = raw
         map to guest = Bad User
         include = /etc/samba/dhcp.conf
         logon path = \\%L\profiles\.msprofile
         logon home = \\%L\%U\.9xprofile
         logon drive = P:
         usershare allow guests = Yes
         add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd  -c Machine -d 
/var/lib/nobody -s /bin/false %m$
         domain logons = No
         domain master = No
         security = share
         netbios name = FILESERVER2

[printers]
         comment = All Printers
         path = /var/tmp
         printable = Yes
         create mask = 0600
         browseable = No
[print$]
         comment = Printer Drivers
         path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
         write list = @ntadmin root
         force group = ntadmin
         create mask = 0664
         directory mask = 0775

[share]
         comment = share
         path = /share
         read only = No
         guest ok = Yes
         browsable = Yes

-- 
Arno Schäfer
IT-Beratung & Softwareentwicklung

PHP - Java - Web-Anwendungen
Linux/Unix - MySQL - Hochverfügbarkeit - Security

Hainer Trift 38 - 63303 Dreieich
mailto: arno_schaefer at gmx.de
Tel. +49-6103-699967 | Mobil +49-171-7939236