[Samba] Need SMB server / client tuning help

[Rowland Penny]

On 07/04/2023 12:16, Swapneel More via samba wrote:
> Although we reached out to Hitachi support, we didn't specifically request
> for the smb.conf file from them. As a result, we're uncertain about the
> status of their Samba version, whether it's in standard or mangled form,
> and whether they're capable of providing us with the smb.conf file.

The problem is that unless we can see how Samba is set up now, how can 
we say if any modifications are required ?

> 
> I was wondering if there are any specific parameters or information that we
> should check from the HNAS samba server side to address the slowness issue
> we're experiencing with a particular share that contains a large number of
> smaller files, apart from the smb.conf file. Additionally, I was wondering
> if you could advise on the specific details we should look for in the SMB
> protocol perspective when analyzing network traffic captures using
> Wireshark.

I would imagine that the NAS has some form of GUI to administer it with, 
but what you would need to change, I would not know, I didn't even know 
that Hitachi made computers.
I suggest you get the Wireshark traces and go back to Hitachi and tell 
them that their device is very slow, here are the traces, what are they 
going to do about it ?
I take it you have a support contract with Hitachi.

> 
> Although Microsoft provides the robocopy tool, it has been observed to have
> lower throughput when copying a large number of smaller files from the SMB
> share.

Cannot really comment on Robocopy, it is, as you say, a Microsoft product.

> 
> I also wanted to ask if increasing the number of connections between the
> client and server and using multiple NIC cards at the SMB client side for
> multichanneling could potentially improve the performance, especially
> copying millions of smaller files from the share. Or are there any
> limitations within the SMB protocol when copying a large number of smaller
> files from the share?

There is 'server multi channel support' which requires SMBv3, this was 
introduced at Samba 4.4.0 , but wasn't enabled by default until 4.15.0
As you cannot find which version of Samba (if any) is running on your 
NAS, I cannot say if it is available, or if it is available, that it is 
switched on by default.
If it is supported, then Samba can use multiple network interfaces to 
talk to multiple network interfaces on another SMBv3 server.

> 
> I appreciate any advice or guidance you can provide on this matter. Thank
> you.

The only other advice I can suggest, post the wireshark traces somewhere 
and post a link to them here.

Rowland