Samba Performance issue (only Linux->WinXP)

English Network/Internet
1

Hi,

I still have not solve my issue with WOL, but there is another, even more annoying problem.

My server is running OpenSuse 10.3 on a Asus M2A-VM with onboard GbLAN (Realtek).

We have a big digital photo collection, stored on the server and the main working PC is running WinXP and ACDSee as photo viewer/browser/organizer.

When copying files from the WinXP machine to the Server, the performance is good, but reading from the server and browsing the Photos is a nightmare.

The whole network is set up as Gbit LAN (D-Link GbSwitch).

When using the WinXP machine to browse the photo collection, the thumbnails are shown immediately if they were already created beforehand. But creating them new takes minutes for even ~20 photos.

Even worse, in slideshow mode (or viewing an image fullscreen) it takes 5-30 seconds to load ONE photo!

As said, the copying to the server is fast, but reading is awfully slow.

And now I have a bizarre info: When I open a VNC conncetion to the server, in parallel to the browsing, and move the mouse pointer over the VNC window, then the access to the photos is lightning fast!

I tried already some thing:

  • different drivers for server NIC:
    • r8169 (installed by Suse) - described issue
    • r8111 (from realtek website and recommended by some internet posts) - works the same way as r8169 from distribution
    • r8168 (from realtek website, version 8.008.00) - same
  • 100MBit switch (forcing connection speed to 100MBit), feels slightly slower, but problem persists
  • switch off IPv6 - no change
  • firewall is off since this is a private network w/o direct internet connection (I’d probably turn it on, once the performance issue is solved.
  • smb.conf:
    in global section:
    socket options 0 SO_KEEPALIVE TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_RCVBUF=65536 SO_SNDBUF=65536

Any help is highly appreciated.

Marcus

2

smb.conf:

[global]
        workgroup = WORKGROUP
        printing = cups
        printcap name = cups
        printcap cache time = 750
        cups options = raw
        map to guest = Bad User
        logon path = \\%L\profiles\.msprofile
        logon home = \\%L\%U\.9xprofile
        logon drive = P:
        socket options = SO_KEEPALIVE TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_RCVBUF=65536 SO_SNDBUF=65536
        usershare allow guests = No
        add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd  -c Machine -d /var/lib/nobody -s /bin/false %m$
        domain logons = No
        domain master = No
        netbios name = FILESERVER
        security = user
        passdb backend = smbpasswd:/etc/samba/smbpasswd
        # vfs modul 'Papierkorb' einbinden
        vfs objects = recycle
        # Verzeichnis fuer PK
        recycle: repository = __Papierkorb__
        # Verzeichnisstruktur im PK mitsichern
        recycle: keeptree = Yes
        # sofort zu loeschende Dateitypen
        recycle: exclude = *.tmp, *.temp, *.log, *.ldb
        # sofort zu loeschende Verzeichnisse
        recycle: exclude_dir = tmp
        # PK Dateien versionieren
        recycle:versions = Yes
        # Ausnahmen fuer Versionierung
        ## recycle: noversions = *.doc, *.xls, *.mdb, *.pdf


# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports:  TP ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 1000Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 0
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: pumbg
        Wake-on: g
        Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
        Link detected: yes


# ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1E:8C:86:7C:3B
          inet addr:192.168.0.98  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:34892 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:38025 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:4221168 (4.0 Mb)  TX bytes:22876864 (21.8 Mb)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0x6000
3

Further info:
The photos are stored on a RAID1 array mounted via LVM.

4

Is the slow reading only with image files (that have thumbs generated within WinXP) or also with other file types?

5

Ok. I found the reason…

The network cable from Server to plug was broken. I replaced it with a new one, dedicated CAT.6 and now the performance is fine!

Regards
Marcus