[Samba] Very slow initial opening MS-Word and MS-Excel files from Samba

[Marcello Romani]

Berend Tober ha scritto:
> The first time a Word or Excel file is opened, i.e., when either Word or 
> Excel have not been actively running "recently" (like, say for several 
> minutes or more), the time it takes to start the application and load 
> the file seem inordinately long.
> 
> Once the first evolution is complete, files open more-or-less instantly 
> if I close the first document but leave either app running (but void of 
> any open documents). This pertains to the same file opened a second 
> time, or different files -- once Word/Excel has done whatever it is 
> thats takes so long for initial start up, then load performance is 
> acceptable (in fact it is very impressive!).
> 
> And it is not merely the loading of the app, because it happens both 
> when I start the apps implicitly by double-clicking on a document in 
> Windows Explorer, but also if I first start Word/Excel explicitly from 
> the START menu without a specific document and then open one from the 
> Samba share using File|Open.
> 
> Envirnoment:
> 
> Server is RHEL 5 with Samba version samba-3.0.23c-2.el5.2.0.2
> 
> Desktops are XP Pro SP2 on some, and XP Home SP2 on others.
> 
> MS Office Suite is XP Pro (i.e., Word/Excel 2002)
> 
> Desktops also run Symantec Corporate Edition 8.1 (although same problem 
> continues on a machine from which I uninstalled that as part of my 
> debugging.)
> 
> I initially had no explicit settings regarding opportunistic locking in 
> smb.conf, but I've tried server different configurations without 
> improvement. What appears below is the current configuration and the 
> problem still pertains.
> 
> 
> smb.conf:
> 
> [global]
>     workgroup = mygroup
>     server string = Samba Server
>     hosts allow = 192.168.123. 127.
>     cups options = raw
>     log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
>     max log size = 50
>     dns proxy = no
>     username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
>     case sensitive = no
>     kernel oplocks = no
> 
> 
> [homes]
>     comment =
>     browseable = no
>     writeable = yes
> 
> [acct]
>     path = /usr/local/var/samba/acct
>     writeable = yes
>     guest ok = yes
>     browseable = no
>     create mask = 0765
>     directory mask = 0775
>     oplocks = False
>     level2 oplocks = False
> 
> 
> [engr]
>     path = /usr/local/var/samba/engr
>     writeable = yes
>     browseable = no
>     guest ok = yes
>     create mask = 0765
>     directory mask = 0775
>     oplocks = False
>     level2 oplocks = False
> 
> 
> Active Directory is not used. All workstations (about 25) simply map 
> drive letters locally.
> 
> This performance problem appeared only after we began using Samba for 
> file server. Never saw this in close to 15 years of using Netware -- so 
> I suspect it is not purely an MS-Office problem, but something to do 
> with the interaction between MS-Office and Samba. I eagerly await your 
> help!
> 
> 

Have you tried copying (tens of MBs) files or even those same office 
files to/from the share ? What is the performance there ?

I had a similar performance problem which showed up in Office, but I 
found out it was not limited to "office" files, but affected the 
transfer speed between the client and the server in general.

I have found a solution and posted it to this list, search for the 
thread "Vista client / Linux server - hight browsing latency" (or I will 
send you the e-mail if you so desire).

HTH

-- 
Marcello Romani
Responsabile IT
Ottotecnica s.r.l.
http://www.ottotecnica.com