From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 24 12:36:35 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3A7A37B401 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 2003 12:36:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.remarkablehost.com (ns1.remarkablehost.com [208.186.168.9]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id B19F043F3F for ; Thu, 24 Jul 2003 12:36:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from lists.freebsd.org@nixsoftware.com) Received: (qmail 19469 invoked by uid 110); 24 Jul 2003 19:36:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ash) (200.43.108.96) by ns1.remarkablehost.com with SMTP; 24 Jul 2003 19:36:32 -0000 Message-ID: <00f401c3521b$65081910$0200a8c0@ash> From: "Nicolas Gieczewski" To: Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:39:36 -0300 Organization: Nix Software Solutions MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4927.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4927.1200 Subject: Samba: Marginal performance & pauses in transfers X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 19:36:36 -0000 Hello everybody, I have a FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE server running Samba 2.2.8a and a = workstation running Windows 2000 SP4. Whereas FTP transfers between these boxes = average 700 KB/s (10 mbps LAN), Samba transfers are never beyond ~120 KB/s. Trust me, I have tried *everything* I've run into as far as tuning goes, = but this is a different problem. The main problem lies in the fact that = transfers are not consistent and undergo VERY long, random pauses. My hub's activity = LED shows that, during a Samba transfer between these two boxes, no packets are transferred about 70% of the time. Yep, only during about 30% of the = total time a transfer takes there is actual network activity--the remaining = 70% of the time is taken up by random (both length- and interval-wise) pauses. All my network cards are propery configured, both media- and duplex- = wise. There are nearly no collissions, and the 700 KB/s rate I can achieve in = FTP transfers shows that Samba has the problem. I can do SMB transfers = between the Windows 2000 box and another Windows 98 box at about 600 KB/s, so = the culprit is obviously Samba on the FreeBSD box. Because most of the time a transfer takes to complete is wasted on those random pauses, anything I could tune concerning buffer sizes and the = like is almost useless because it only takes effect while data is actually being transferred, not during the pauses. I have fiddled with buffer sizes = and, by looking at the hub's activity light, I could (visually and easily) see = how more or less data was transferred in between the pauses depending on the buffer sizes I chose. However, the pauses stayed consistent throughout = all my tests. By using larger buffer sizes, all I could do was push more = data through in between the pauses, but my tuning never affected the length = or interval of the pauses themselves. Does anyone happen to know what could be causing this problem? Cheers, Nicolas Gieczewski Nix Software Solutions http://www.nixsoftware.com/