[Samba] Poor performance on open/copy/close/rename file operations via remote/VPN connection

[gianfranco pra floriani]

Hello Dave,
Thank you for your reply.
I added the following parameters to the global section:
        wins support = yes
        name resolve order = wins lmhosts hosts bcast
        local master = yes
        preferred master = yes
        domain master = yes
        os level = 65

and set VPN config and DHCP options to use the samba server as WINS 
server, and restarted all clients.
I cannot say that the response time to any operation has been improved.
I checked the logs created by Samba for each client: as an example when 
trying to "CTRL-C CTRL-V" a 1KB file from explorer nothing in the log 
happens for about 17-18 seconds, and only after that time something is 
shown:

[2008/03/25 15:17:56, 2] smbd/open.c:open_file(352)
  gian opened file docs/divertimento/frame.html read=Yes write=No 
(numopen=3)
[2008/03/25 15:17:57, 2] smbd/close.c:close_normal_file(344)
  gian closed file docs/divertimento/frame.html (numopen=2)
[2008/03/25 15:17:57, 2] smbd/open.c:open_file(352)
  gian opened file docs/divertimento/frame.html read=Yes write=No 
(numopen=3)
[2008/03/25 15:18:01, 2] smbd/open.c:open_file(352)
  gian opened file docs/divertimento/Copia di frame.html read=No 
write=Yes (numopen=4)
[2008/03/25 15:18:01, 2] smbd/close.c:close_normal_file(344)
  gian closed file docs/divertimento/Copia di frame.html (numopen=3)
[2008/03/25 15:18:17, 2] smbd/close.c:close_normal_file(344)
  gian closed file docs/divertimento/frame.html (numopen=2)

As you can see, it took about 18 seconds to start the operation (no 
logging info), and then 21 more seconds from the first "open" to the 
last "close". This is quite annoying.
Did I set something wrong?
Thank you all for any help.
Sincerely
gian


Dave Kempe wrote:
> gianfranco pra floriani wrote:
>> Other services using the VPN such as SCP, SSH, HTTP, FTP work very 
>> good on the same connection, with no slow issues at all. I tried 2 
>> kinds of VPN connections (OpenVPN and a router-proprietary VPN 
>> gateway-to-client), and both have the same issue, both only with Samba.
>> I wonder if there is something I'm missing in client or server 
>> configuration that makes Samba talking very slow when connections are 
>> not coming from the LAN. The file transfer process works fine: once 
>> the "saving file" or "copying file" process has begun, it takes the 
>> same amount of time needed by a SCP or a FTP transfer command using 
>> the same VPN connection. I tried to copy a 2MB file from client to 
>> server and the time needed using SCP and using SAMBA (once the copy 
>> process was started) was the same.
> I have only got this to work nicely by using a WINS server pushed to 
> OpenVPN clients.
> add something like to your openvpn config:
> push "dhcp-option WINS 192.168.0.64"
>
> and setup the samba server to be the wins server, and make sure 
> everyone on the lan points to it too (dhcp can do this)
>
> then name resolution seems to work better, the client avoids 
> broadcasts, which don't flow over the VPN, and everthing is much faster.
>
> dave
>
>
>
>