[Samba] Samba share of a NFS mount

[Tim Boyer]

I've got a NFS directory that's shared among my RHEL5 servers that I'd like
to give access to a couple of Win2K servers, also.  The easiest way to do so
is to NFS mount the directory on my Samba server, and export the directory
as a Samba share.

It works.  Kind of.  But it redefines 'slow'.

Copying the file from a normal Samba share takes under 10 seconds on a slow
network:

[c:\program files\resource kit]timethis.exe copy y:\testfile \tmp

TimeThis :  Command Line :  copy y:\testfile \tmp
TimeThis :    Start Time :  Mon May 04 09:24:30 2009

Y:\testfile => C:\tmp\testfile
     1 file copied

TimeThis :  Command Line :  copy y:\testfile \tmp
TimeThis :    Start Time :  Mon May 04 09:24:30 2009
TimeThis :      End Time :  Mon May 04 09:24:39 2009
TimeThis :  Elapsed Time :  00:00:09.123

But the same file from a NFS share exported via Samba takes five times as
long:

[c:\program files\resource kit]timethis.exe copy x:\tmp\testfile \tmp

TimeThis :  Command Line :  copy x:\tmp\testfile \tmp
TimeThis :    Start Time :  Mon May 04 09:22:07 2009

X:\tmp\testfile => C:\tmp\testfile
     1 file copied

TimeThis :  Command Line :  copy x:\tmp\testfile \tmp
TimeThis :    Start Time :  Mon May 04 09:22:07 2009
TimeThis :      End Time :  Mon May 04 09:22:51 2009
TimeThis :  Elapsed Time :  00:00:44.295

The NFS export looks like so:

/var/ftp/pub        192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0(rw,no_root_squash,async)

and the smb.conf entry like this:

[nfs]
   comment = tolstoy nfs directory
   path = /mnt/rhel
   read only = no
   browseable = yes
   public = yes  
   create mask = 0666

Pointers in the right direction - or where to start looking - greatly
appreciated.  Thanks...

-- 
Tim Boyer
Denman Tire Corporation