Subject: [netatalk-admins] Very slow Save and Copying!

From: Mitch McNeel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 15:10:46 -0700

Hey Netatalk Admin.

        I'm running netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.0a18.2 on a Sun SPARC 20
Solaris 2.6 machine.  I have 16 MAC (2 G3's and the rest are powerpc's)
logging into the netatalk server via TCP/IP.  User's and Dept.'s
directories are auto mounted form a Ultra Enterprise 450 (NFS server).
Users log in through the SPARC 20 and auto mount a shared volume from
the UE-450.  My question is:  Why is it, when users save or copy files
to the netatalk shared volume, it takes twice or even sometimes three to
four time as long to save or copy to their own local drive??  For
example: I have a 6 MB file (photoshop), I save or copy to my local
drive it only take 20 to 30 Seconds, but if I try and save or copy this
file to the netatalk shared volume it takes anywhere from 3 to 5
minutes??  Is there something wrong with my configuration or is anyone
have an idea of what to do??

atalkd.conf file:
    be0 -phase 2 -net 1-10 -addr 1.248 -zone "appletalk"

AppleVolume.default
    /home/catalog           CatalogVolume           # Pub Catalog
Volume, to Replace Cat. Server.

Thanks in Advance
Mitch

---

From: Mitch McNeel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 08:44:09 -0700

Sorry for the Delay and thanks for the replies.

Well to start with:

        We have a department (Catalog design) that is on their own internal
shared 100base-t net (talking ASIP and TCP/IP also talking Appletalk peer to
peer). Their MAC's have 10 Mb ether cards installed.  On the other side of
their router, we have a shared 100base-t net. with all Sun Machines (i.e..
20 UE-450's, E-5500, E-3500, Sparc's etc...).  The only load on the netatalk
server is 16 MAC's and other net. traffic (PC's/Terminal's) are routed to
other servers.

    Test results of saving to another Mac (both G3's) on the same net was 11
seconds and from the same Mac's saving to the netatalk server was 3 minutes
and 15 seconds for a 6.7MB file.  Formally these MAC were on a PowerPc /
Workgroup Server 8550/132 which was on the same 100base-t net.  The results
of saving to that server was 12 seconds.

Following is a netstat from the SS20:
TCP
   Local Address        Remote Address    Swind Send-Q Rwind Recv-Q  State
-------------------- -------------------- ----- ------ ----- ------ -------
neptune.afpovert     mitchmac.nfsd        64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     scottn.nfsd          64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.login        venus.1017            8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.shell        venus.978             8760      0  8760      0
CLOSE_WAIT
neptune.1022         venus.976             8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.35521        venus.6000            8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.login        aquarius.1016         8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     172.10.20.30.2051    64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     sharrone.2051        64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     172.10.20.26.2051    64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     172.10.20.115.nfsd   64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     jeffn.2051           64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     pilarw.2051          64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.afpovert     brianb.nfsd          64240      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.623          prometheus.nfsd       8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.619          prometheus.sunrpc     8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.618          prometheus.lockd      8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
neptune.36027        atlas.32772           8760      0  8760      0
TIME_WAIT
neptune.36028        atlas.32772           8760      0  8760      0
TIME_WAIT
neptune.617          centaur.nfsd          8760      0  8760      0
ESTABLISHED
Active UNIX domain sockets
Address  Type          Vnode     Conn Addr
f67441f0 stream-ord     7601        0 /var/X/.X11-unix/X0
f6744330 stream-ord        0        0

Mitch

Randall Downer wrote:

I run a very similar configuration without these problems.

It sounds more like a network issue than an appletalk issue. What is
your network topology like? ie is it switched or shared? Is the UE450
on the same segment as the connection from your desktop to the SS20?

What does netstat tell you on the 20?

RD
Neil McAllister wrote:

Comparing the speed of 10 megaBIT-per-second Ethernet (over which the data
travels when your users save to the networked volume) vs. 10 megaBYTE per
second SCSI hard drives... you might expect saving to the network drive to
be 8-10 times slower.  I'd say your performance level sounds pretty good.

--
Neil McAllister, Systems Administrator

Tim Carlson wrote:

> On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Mitch McNeel wrote:
>
> have you tried testing this with saving to another Mac on the net?  You
> didn't tell us how fast your network is. Is it all one shared 10Mb net?
> How heavily loaded is the server?
>
> Tim
>