Re: Fwd: mech_step takes long to return

2007-10-23 Thread Rudy Gevaert

Aditya Khasnis wrote:

Hello,

We have a LDAP server that uses Cyrus SASL library v 1.5.27.

On AIX 5.2, we observe that the SASL searches take long to return. The
behavior is such that the first SASL search that we fire returns fast but the
subsequent search takes long time to return.

I have tried to debug SASL library and in the place where it takes long is
 the function sasl_server_start(), and exact location is line 1205.

It will be great if you great if you could provide us any guidance to debug
the problem. The mechanism we are using in the search is DIGEST-MD5.


Slowdown in Sasl is most of the time related to the lack of entropy.

Q: I'm having performance problems on each authentication, there is a 
noticeable slowdown when sasl initializes, what can I do?


A:libsasl reads from /dev/random as part of its initialization. 
/dev/random is a secure source of entropy, and will block your 
application until a sufficient amount of randomness has been collected 
to meet libsasl's needs.


To improve performance, you can change DEV_RANDOM in config.h to be 
/dev/urandom and recompile libsasl. /dev/urandom offers less secure 
random numbers but should return immediately. The included mechanisms, 
besides OTP and SRP, use random numbers only to generate nonces, so 
using /dev/urandom is safe if you aren't using OTP or SRP.


(http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/cyrus2/sysadmin.html)

--
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Rudy Gevaert  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  tel:+32 9 264 4734
Directie ICT, afd. Infrastructuur ICT Department, Infrastructure office
Groep SystemenSystems group
Universiteit Gent Ghent University
Krijgslaan 281, gebouw S9, 9000 Gent, Belgie   www.UGent.be
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Re: Fwd: mech_step takes long to return

2007-10-23 Thread Aditya Khasnis
Thank you for you suggestion Rudy, I changed the config.h as mentioned but the 
performance didn't improve.

It still takes a long in mech_step. Should I check anything else?

Regards,
Aditya

-Original Message- 
 Re: Fwd: mech_step takes long to return 
 From : Rudy Gevaert [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 CC: cyrus-devel@lists.andrew.cmu.edu 
 Date: Tuesday 23 October 2007 17:44 


 Aditya Khasnis wrote:
  Hello,
 
  We have a LDAP server that uses Cyrus SASL library v 1.5.27.
 
  On AIX 5.2, we observe that the SASL searches take long to return. The
  behavior is such that the first SASL search that we fire returns fast but
  the subsequent search takes long time to return.
 
  I have tried to debug SASL library and in the place where it takes long
  is the function sasl_server_start(), and exact location is line 1205.
 
  It will be great if you great if you could provide us any guidance to
  debug the problem. The mechanism we are using in the search is
  DIGEST-MD5.

 Slowdown in Sasl is most of the time related to the lack of entropy.

 Q: I'm having performance problems on each authentication, there is a
 noticeable slowdown when sasl initializes, what can I do?

  A:libsasl reads from /dev/random as part of its initialization.
 /dev/random is a secure source of entropy, and will block your
 application until a sufficient amount of randomness has been collected
 to meet libsasl's needs.

  To improve performance, you can change DEV_RANDOM in config.h to be
 /dev/urandom and recompile libsasl. /dev/urandom offers less secure
 random numbers but should return immediately. The included mechanisms,
 besides OTP and SRP, use random numbers only to generate nonces, so
 using /dev/urandom is safe if you aren't using OTP or SRP.

 (http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/cyrus2/sysadmin.html)