One NFS connection fine, one NFS connection slow

[Robert E A Harvey]

Ok, this is all a bit odd. I will draw an ascii picture and hope it
survives in Google:

sun server
| .------mandrake 8.2------.
|---nfs mount------|client -> samba server |---share-|
| `------------------------' |
| .----suse 9.0-----------. |
|---nfs mount-----|client -> samba server |-----share--|
`-----------------------' |
|-- Windows


A long time ago someone set up samba on a mandrake box, to give
windows users access to the big unix file server. Everyone is a
"guest" so the files are owned on the server by "nobody" - 99:99

Snag, is, that mandrake box is supposed to be doing something
important, and we need to get the traffic off. so I have built a
similar setup with an old Dell server, and installed suse 9 on it.
I've mounted the same exported drives from the sun box and run samba
to share them to the windows people.

It all works fine, except for Microsoft Office apps. If I open a file
in word on the mandrake share it is fine, just like a local drive. If
I open it on the suse share then word hangs "not responding" for about
3 minutes, then comes back to life. Same when auto-save comes in or
when you try to exit. Other software, other apps, no problem. Only
Office.

I have created a samba share to a local disk on the suse 9 box, and it
works without any problems: I don't think the problem is in my samba
setup. It seems to be the nfs part of the equation, and it is driving
me demented.

I have changed user "nobody" on the suse box from 65544:65533 to 99:99
to avoid conflicts - no better. I have checked what is happening on
the sun server: the windows ~$ lock file and ~WOR buffer files are
created instantly, with the right owners and permission bits.

The only thing that might take time is that an acl is created on the
original word file on the sun server from the suse box, but not from
the mandrake box. the acl appears benign, but I wonder if the act of
creation is the problem. Other applications do not create acls, and
the two temporary files that microsoft creates don't have acls.

The setup of the nfs mounts on the two boses is the same - the options
are "defaults, rw" on both of them.

AA: Has anyone seen anything like this before?
BB: how can I create an nfs mount that does not invoke the acl
mechanism?
CC: anyone know where I can get Samba binaries for Solaris 8?

[Robert E A Harvey]

[email]robertharvey@my-deja.com[/email] (Robert E A Harvey) wrote

> Ok, this is all a bit odd.

<<snip my tale of Microsoft Office apps. hanging on one samba server
but not another>>

I've done some trials using a separate suse9 workstation with samba 3,
and although the effect is still visible in word and excel the delay
is never more than 2 seconds, rather than minutes under samba 2.2.

I have accordingly installed samba 3.0.4 onto the suse 9 server, and
am well satisfied with the results.

I still don't know what word/excel are doing, but the impact
is negligable, so we can live with it.

[Doug Freyburger]

Robert E A Harvey wrote:

>
> sun server
> | .------mandrake 8.2------.
> |---nfs mount------|client -> samba server |---share-|
> | `------------------------' |
> | .----suse 9.0-----------. |
> |---nfs mount-----|client -> samba server |-----share--|
> `-----------------------' |
> |-- Windows
>
> It all works fine, except for Microsoft Office apps.

This is a wierd part.

> If I open a file
> in word on the mandrake share it is fine, just like a local drive. If
> I open it on the suse share then word hangs "not responding" for about
> 3 minutes, then comes back to life. Same when auto-save comes in or
> when you try to exit. Other software, other apps, no problem. Only
> Office.

3 minutes is twice 90 seconds. 90 seconds is the cycle time for RIP
routing broadcasts. If it worked that way for every network connection
I would suspect who the routing is set-up. Just for grins thoroughly
check the netmasks *everywhere*. Mismatched netmasks can cause wierd
stuff like that.

> The only thing that might take time is that an acl is created on the
> original word file on the sun server from the suse box, but not from
> the mandrake box ...

> AA: Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Sorta. I've seen Source Safe use packets that are illegal that real
Windows servers react to anyways but SAMBA servers don't. If you
have a sniffer available you could check to see if Office apps send
illegal packets rather than valid SMB/CIFS protocol ones. MS
publishes the specs but they don't always use them internally.

> BB: how can I create an nfs mount that does not invoke the acl
> mechanism?

On the Linux client end there should be a noacl switch available.

> CC: anyone know where I can get Samba binaries for Solaris 8?

Years ago it used to be available for download on the Sun freeware
site but I no longer even recall the URL off the top of my head.
Cruising the Sun web page would be as fast on your end as on mine.

[Chip C]

[email]dfreybur@yahoo.com[/email] (Doug Freyburger) wrote in message news:<7960d3ee.0405200755.a9ef070@posting.google.c om>...

> Robert E A Harvey wrote:

> > CC: anyone know where I can get Samba binaries for Solaris 8?

>
> Years ago it used to be available for download on the Sun freeware
> site but I no longer even recall the URL off the top of my head.
> Cruising the Sun web page would be as fast on your end as on mine.

The sun freeware site is fiendishly still hiding at
[url]www.sunfreeware.com[/url]. (I don't recall ever finding a link to it from
sun.com.) At the moment it appears to have packaged binaries of samba
3.0.2a for Solaris 8 (and 9), both SPARC and Intel. There are
dependencies, also available there.

Chip C

[Dave Hinz]

On 27 May 2004 12:49:56 -0700, Chip C <chipc_0517@yahoo.com> wrote:

> [email]dfreybur@yahoo.com[/email] (Doug Freyburger) wrote in message news:<7960d3ee.0405200755.a9ef070@posting.google.c om>...

>> Robert E A Harvey wrote:

>

>> > CC: anyone know where I can get Samba binaries for Solaris 8?

>>
>> Years ago it used to be available for download on the Sun freeware
>> site

> The sun freeware site is fiendishly still hiding at
> [url]www.sunfreeware.com[/url]. (I don't recall ever finding a link to it from
> sun.com.)

I don't think it's affiliated with sun.com.

> At the moment it appears to have packaged binaries of samba
> 3.0.2a for Solaris 8 (and 9), both SPARC and Intel. There are
> dependencies, also available there.

3.0.2a has security advisories against it. If Mr. Harvey trusts me, I
could send him my 3.0.4 package, generic build with no compile-time
strangeness.

Dave "My email address does work" Hinz

[Davide Bianchi]

In comp.unix.admin Robert E A Harvey <robertharvey@my-deja.com> wrote:

> setup. It seems to be the nfs part of the equation, and it is driving
> me demented.

NFS is quite odd, but, since all you want to do is to share the
SUN machine, can't you just install Samba in the sun machine and
get rid of the 'middle man' altogheter?

> CC: anyone know where I can get Samba binaries for Solaris 8?

If they aren't on sunfreeware.com, you'll have to compile them yourself.
Davide

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