[Samba] Compile kernel with Xeon instructions was: suggestions for a "fast" fileserver - 1G / 10G - focus on smb.conf/samba

[Gregory Carter]

Well, that will help, but you know, operating systems tend to be a bit
fickle.

:-)

LINUX as a high performance OS, is so because you can tailor the
engineering of the operating system to a particular task all the way
down to the source code lines.

With that being said, I can Email you a .config to look at and discuss
because there are too many options to change/add in the configuration of
the kernel in my opinion to discuss on a list.

One other issue for the people on the list, besides discussing compiling
options for the OS and or SAMBA itself is the temporal configuration of
the operating system.

If you manage some large SAMBA facilities like I do, you should lower
the context switching rate to about 100Hz.

Also, you really should set your OS kernel running SAMBA to not force
preemption. (Obviously because you are not running anything else except
SAMBA on your SAMBA server.)

These are fairly basic operating system config issues for the every day
LINUX engineer.

Since we are talking about a server, and I assume it is running just
SAMBA, these options will give you another big boost in performance.

But there is a lot more you could do.

A lot more.

-gc

On 03/27/2014 08:52 AM, Peter Serbe wrote:
> Hi Oscar, 
> 
> this is pretty easy. I took advice from here: 
> 
> http://www.tecmint.com/kernel-compilation-in-debian-linux/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tecmint+%28Tecmint%3A+Linux+Howto%27s+Guide%29
> 
> In the menuconfig browse to "Processor Type and Features", there You 
> can check the "Core 2/newer Xeon" option. 
> To the best of my knowledge the default gcc version should do. On my 
> Jessie box I happened to find gcc 4.8.2. But I have a hard time, thinking 
> that the gcc version shipped with Wheezy wasn't able to compile it just 
> as good. 
> 
> Best regards
> Peter
> 
> 
> Oscar Aparicio Holgado schrieb am 27.03.2014 13:05:
> 
>> First sorry to invade this thread, but i'm interested to try this advices in my
>> virtual machines about compile 3.13.7 kernel.
>> I'm using Debian Wheezy, i have a doubt.
>> What GCC version i must use to compile kernel?, and most important, must be
>> enabled this options in config file : ?
>> *.- XEON instruction optimizations*.- block device caching
>> Thanks.
>> Oscar.
> 
>