[Samba] Poor performance when copying large files from a Samba server to a PC

[Gary Dale]

Do a search through the Samba list archives. This problem comes up from 
time to time on this list.


Peter Lappo wrote:
> Hi,
> Does anyone else get poor performance when copying large files from a 
> Samba server to a PC in a Windows XP / Samba Linux environment?
>
> Its faster copying from the PC to Samba by a factor of 12.
>
> I'll probably give up soon and buy a network attached storage device 
> to save myself hours of messing around.
>
> Peter
>
> Peter Lappo wrote:,
>> I get long pauses if I just drag and drop any large file using 
>> windows explorer from the server to the client. So its not confined 
>> to using a mp3 player.
>>
>> The mp3 player works fine when using a local file or when streaming 
>> from another windows xp machine. See stats below.
>>
>> Sometimes there is a long pause before anything appears to happen.
>>
>> Here are some interesting transfer times on a 30MB file.
>> Transfer times and network peaks according to Windows Task Manager 
>> are shown.
>>
>> When using Windows Explorer to drag and drop files (ie at the pc screen)
>> PC -> Samba     5 sec          60% network peaks, no pauses
>> Samba -> PC     1 minute     20% network peaks, significant pauses
>>
>> When using Fedora Nautilus to drag and drop files (ie sitting at the 
>> server screen),
>> PC -> Samba     15 sec        20% network peaks, no pauses
>> Samba -> PC     1 minute     5% network peaks, no pauses
>>
>> When using Windows Explorer to drag and drop files, (ie drag and drop 
>> between local and remote pc)
>> PC -> PC remote    5 sec     80% peak, no pauses
>> PC remote -> PC    5 sec     80% peak, no pauses
>>
>> The smbstatus didn't change throughout.
>>
>> The problem seems to be sending data from Samba to the client.
>>
>> It would be interesting to try Samba to Samba transfers but I don't 
>> have the equipment set-up to try this.
>>