Here are the cases I had:
Win7 client 1 (VMware host) using Windows Explorer, read fast, write slow
Win7 client 1 using FTP, read fast, write slow
Win7 samba client 2 using Windows Explorer, read fast, write fast
Linux client 1 using FTP, read fast, write fast
Linux client 1 using smbclient, read fast, write fast
As you can see, anything that had to do with writes from Win7 client 1,
which was the VMware host, went slow.
And this did have a large virtual drive - it was 500GB. That was
probably the problem :)
I've since moved the client from VMware to proxmox-ve on a difference
system and life is good. I won't be able to pursue this any further.
Same config files and it works very well.
Regards,
George Toft
On 11/3/2012 8:16 PM, Lisa Kachold wrote:
Hi George,
On Sat, Oct 27, 2012 at 6:01 PM, George Toft <geo...@georgetoft.com
<mailto:geo...@georgetoft.com>> wrote:
Spent several hours researching this one - can't find a solution.
I hope someone here can hit me with a clue-by-four.
CentOS 6.3 64-bit virtual running under VMware 2.0.2 fresh install
with FTP/Samba/NFS running. I copied 500+GB of data from the old
computer to the new one using NFS at full network speed (11+
MB/sec). Life's good.
Now here it is a day later, and my samba write speed is a blazing
80KB/sec (up from 40KB/s when I started troubleshooting). I read
samba should approach FTP speed and I verified it does - FTP
writes to the new machine at about the same speed. Reads still
take place a full speed (now it's on a 1Gbps network) - 33MB/sec.
Writes . . . 99.8% slower. I did not have this problem on the
previous samba server (CentOS 4.8 32-bit).
I added memory (it now has 1GB RAM, 1 GB swap) and it has 2 CPU's.
This had no effect.
In summary, NFS works at full speed both ways. Samba/FTP are fast
on reads but snail slow on writes.
My next thought is to install ClearOS, test it, and copy their
smb.conf. Or install CentOS 5.x and see if it has the same problems.
Any ideas where to look on this one? smb.conf necessary.
--
Regards,
George Toft
Microsoft 7 uses smb 2.2, btw --> protocol step down might add to the
lag?
What is your smb version on each node? CIFS clients?
http://www.codefx.com/CIFS_Explained.htm
A given client and server may implement different sets of protocol
variations which they negotiate before starting a session.
There are a great many considerations for this problem:
0) Samba in VMware:
http://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc/network_samba_ws.html
1) Active .vs Passive FTP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqrlBicM8lE
2) Disk type:
Dynamically allocated VMware virtual disks are extremely slow with
writes. Huge virual disks over say 300 gb are also really really slow
for writes.
Raid 5 or greater on VVware is also extremely slow with writes,
depending on the version of VMware.
3) What kind of network are you using?
By default there are three virtual networks created on a VMware
server. They are: VMnet0 -- Bridged VMnet1 -- Host-only VMnet8 -- NAT
4) Networking UDP packets for SMB:
SMB uses UDP which is a connection-less protocol. In other words it
simply broadcasts.
UDP uses a simple communication model without implicit transmission
checks for guaranteeing reliability, sequencing, or datagram
integrity. Though these factors might seem to suggest that UDP is not
a useful protocol, it is still widely used in particular areas where
speed, more than reliability, is of utmost importance. With UDP, error
checks and corrections are carried out in the communicating
application, not at the network layer. However, if error checks and
corrections are needed at the network layer, the application can use
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Stream Control Transmission
Protocol (SCTP), which are specifically formulated for this reason.
Since UDP does not have the overhead of checking whether the data has
reached the destination every time it is sent, it makes the protocol
that much faster and more efficient. UDP is often used for time
sensitive applications where missing data is preferred to late
arriving data.
UDP packets can also create broadcast storms (NFS 3), therefore it's
not suggested that SMB or older NFS3
5) Putting it all together: Using Samba for File Sharing on a
Host-only Network
On a Linux host computer, VMware ESX Server can automatically install
and configure a Samba server to act as a file server for Microsoft
Windows guest operating systems. You can then use Windows Explorer in
the virtual machine to move and copy files between virtual machine and
host --- or between virtual machines on the same network --- just as
you would with files on physical computers that share a network
connection.
The lightly modified Samba server installed by VMware ESX Server runs
over the VMware ESX Server virtual Ethernet and the Samba traffic
between different operating systems is isolated from actual local area
networks. The source code diffs for the changes, based on Samba 2.0.6,
are available from VMware.
Adding User Names and Passwords to the VMware ESX Server Samba
Password File
You may add user names and passwords to the VMware ESX Server Samba
password file at any time from a terminal window on your Linux host
computer.
1. Log in to the root account by typing the following command at the
prompt:
su
2. Run the VMware ESX Server Samba password command.
vmware-smbpasswd vmnet1 -a <username>
where <username> is the user name you want to add.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen.
*Note:* vmware-smbpasswd is based on the standard Samba password
program. If you are familiar with the options used in smbpasswd,
you may use any of them in vmware-smbpasswd.
4. Log out of the root account.
exit
If you receive an error message that says Unknown virtual
interface "vmnet1", this indicates your machine is not using the
VMware ESX Server Samba server. If your installation of VMware ESX
Server does not include the VMware ESX Server Samba server and you
want to set it up, log in to the root account on your host
computer, then run vmware-config.pl <http://vmware-config.pl> from
a terminal window on the host. When the configuration script asks
Do you want this script to automatically configure your system to
allow your virtual machines to access the host file system?,
answer Yes.
If You Are Already Running Samba
If you already have Samba configured on your Linux host, the
recommended approach is to modify that configuration so it includes
the IP subnet used by the VMware ESX Server virtual Ethernet adapter,
VMnet1. In this case, you should *not* install the VMware ESX Server
Samba server when you are installing VMware ESX Server on your host.
When the configuration script prompts you Do you want this script to
automatically configure your system to allow your virtual machines to
access the host file system?, answer No.
To determine what subnet is being used by VMnet1, run /sbin/ifconfig
vmnet1.
It may also be possible to run both your existing Samba server and the
VMware ESX Server Samba server at the same time. In order to do this,
your current Samba server must be version 2.0.6 or higher and must be
configured correctly.
To determine the version of your Samba server, run
smbd -V
Tool for evaluation: http://visualsniffer.software.informer.com/
References:
http://chrissanders.org/2011/11/packet-carving-with-smb-and-smb2/
It's probably going to be best for you to upgrade to ESXi 5 (requires
specific hardware - see the compatibility list at VMware).
--
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