Subject: [netatalk-admins] sporadic copying

From: Eric and Catherine Thompson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 11:32:37 -0700

I recently built a Linux fileserver for a client of mine.  I originally installed Redhat 4.2 (recommended to me several times for ease of net setup) with Netatalk 1.4b2.  That system was mostly ok, except for one big problem:  it would periodically stop allowing connections.  Sometimes it would fix itself, but usually not.  Since I'm an offsite consultant, this is a really big problem, and I decided to try Slackware (which I've always used myself, and tend to prefer).  That seems to have solved that one very big problem, but now I have another minor annoying problem:

When copying large folder of files from one place to another, either from mac to server, or from place to place on the server, the copying is sporadic.  2-5 files will copy very rapidly, and then the process will "stick," waiting an eternity (a few long, painful seconds, anyway) before continuing.  The ultimate result is that moving files is painfully slow.  This did not occur with the Redhat installation.  Is there something I can tweak to alleviate this problem?

TIA

Eric Thompson

eTc Computer Consultants
[email-masked]

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From: Bill Studenmund <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 18:08:28 -0700 (PDT)

On Fri, 29 Aug 1997, Eric and Catherine Thompson wrote:

> I recently built a Linux fileserver for a client of mine.  I originally
> installed Redhat 4.2 (recommended to me several times for ease of net
> setup) with Netatalk 1.4b2.  That system was mostly ok, except for one
> big problem:  it would periodically stop allowing connections. 
> Sometimes it would fix itself, but usually not.  Since I'm an offsite
> consultant, this is a really big problem, and I decided to try Slackware
> (which I've always used myself, and tend to prefer).  That seems to have
> solved that one very big problem, but now I have another minor annoying
> problem: 
> 
> When copying large folder of files from one place to another, either
> from mac to server, or from place to place on the server, the copying is
> sporadic.  2-5 files will copy very rapidly, and then the process will
> "stick," waiting an eternity (a few long, painful seconds, anyway)
> before continuing.  The ultimate result is that moving files is
> painfully slow.  This did not occur with the Redhat installation.  Is
> there something I can tweak to alleviate this problem? 

Is the problem basically that when the mac is writing to the server, it
will occasionally hang? The problem might be that the Appletalk input
buffer on the server's overflowing, and packets are getting dropped. The
transfer will have to wait for that packet to timeout & be re-transmitted
(which takes like 30 seconds).

Last I asked about this, I heard that Linux sets this value fairly high
(like 128 packets). But a fast mac and a loaded server might have the
problem. I think the value lives in sys/netatalk/ddp_usrreq.c (that's
where it is in *BSD versions). Under *BSD, it's ddp_recv.

Go snooping around for this value. Under NetBSD it's set to 25*(587 +
sizeof(sockaddr_at)) (basically 25*600) which holds 25 full packets. 
Try setting it at least that large if it's smaller, or try doubling it.

Take care,

Bill

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From: Jeffrey Thompson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 07:39:41 -0400 (EDT)

>From: Eric and Catherine Thompson <[email-masked]>
>I recently built a Linux fileserver for a client of mine.  I originally =
>installed Redhat 4.2 (recommended to me several times for ease of net =
>setup) with Netatalk 1.4b2.  That system was mostly ok, except for one =
>big problem:  it would periodically stop allowing connections.  =

I run Redhat 4.1 and I still have that "big problem". Has anyone seen this
and solved it? It's preventing me from really using netatalk to it's full
potential when every other connection can't connect.

Jeffrey Thompson