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Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:42 pm
by flying_circus
I took some suggestions from the other thread I started about development environments and installed Xubuntu 9.1.

First impression is that I really like it... IF I can get my network performance back...

My server is an older p4 1.6 with an Intel Pro 10/100 NIC. I've also tried a 3com 3c509C. (same setup that ran great with FreeBSD). This server is only running LAMP + samba.

Problems:
  1. My linksys switch "Link/Act" light will flash on and off at regular intervals, every 2 seconds, for this port. The network on the machine works, in that I can download files, but it seems sluggish at best. Seems odd.
  2. When downloading files, the data rate varies wildly, from a few k/sec to over 100 k/sec and bounces back and forth.
  3. I connect to my server from a windows vista desktop client, which is where I write PHP. Using windows explorer, samba is terribly sluggish. If I open a remote file in my editor, then save it, we are dealing with several seconds to process a save command. Not cool.
I've googled for quite a while now, and people seem to be throwing hardware at the problem. Both NIC's I have used are tried and true in a *nix enviroment, so I dont really understand what is going on here. Any of you guys running ubuntu ever run into this problem before?

Is there any post install steps that I need to do, like host file entries? Could IPV6 support be a suspect (I don't use it on my lan)? Any advice would be appreciated :)

Re: Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:54 pm
by josh
Try replacing the router? Run gigabit ethernet?

Re: Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 9:15 pm
by alex.barylski
I run Samba nd only occassionally have sluggish response times. I've always assumed it was my router acting up. If you figure it anything out you should post back here I'm curious to know if you can find anything. :)

Re: Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 9:22 pm
by Doug G
Check your samba configuration to make sure it matches your windows domain/workgroup settings and has the proper authentication mode selected. Double-check your DNS resolution, dns problems, particularly in a windows AD environment can cause slowdowns. I don't know about Ubuntu, I use Fedora samba and have for years had samba file servers on my windows domain network, and if anything samba is a bit faster doing network transfers that straight windows-windows transfers.

Re: Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:07 pm
by flying_circus
I think I've got it dialed in... I'm using the same hardware that has worked for 3+ years and the only thing that changed is the OS.

For some reason, Ubuntu's network driver did not play nicely with my linksys 5 port desktop switch. Oddly, I unplugged the server from the desktop switch, plugged a linksys wireless router (with 4 port switch) into the same port on the desktop switch, then plugged the server into the wireless router. My speed is back.

Moral of the story: Add a hop, it will increase your speed.

I dont think there is anything wrong with my desktop switch. All my other dozen or so network devices channel through it and seem to work just fine. I suspect Ubunutu was choking on auto-sensing full or half duplex, but I dont care to spend the time investigating it further.

To clarify what I meant by painfully slow, I set up a large file transfer before I went off to dinner. It took just over an hour to transfer about 20 megs before I yanked the power cord and screamed "I Won!"

These are the obvious things that make technology so user friendly. :banghead:

Re: Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:15 pm
by daedalus__
when native drivers are bunk you can use ndiswrapper to run windows drivers

Re: Samba seems painfully slow?

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 12:02 am
by flying_circus
daedalus__ wrote:when native drivers are bunk you can use ndiswrapper to run windows drivers
Good to know! I'm pretty far from a sys admin, but I will file that away for use later :)