Too much network activity?

[David Groos]

Hi Jim,

Interesting, I think, that the newer clients take 1/4 of the time of the
older.  This seems to imply that the cause isn't just on the server?

I've not specifically added clients to /etc/hosts.  What does this do?

"LDM_DIRECTX=*True" *what does this do?

I had heard of fl_teachertool but am just checking into it.  Seems like it
has more features than iTALC, an alternative project.  I looked for a
comparison of the two, didn't find much though looks like it might not be
kept up?  Author says might want to go for iTALC for this reason...
http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/151686  What do you think?  Ever tried
iTALC?  Yes, we'll get through this :)

David

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Jim Christiansen <
jim.c.christiansen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello David,
>
> I haven't topped the server yet at client log on yet.  It was on my list
> though for Tuesday (Monday= day off)
>
> I can tell you that it seems we do have the same problem.  My 9 year old
> etherbooting boxes with newer (4 year old) rt8139 nics take 2 minutes to log
> on on after the students push enter for their passwords.  I have 25 of these
> old boxes.  They are 128 or 256 meg amd k 450s and 500s.
>
> My newer- 4 year old "Computers For BC Schools" that are 1.5 Gighz  and 1
> gig ram take 30 seconds to log on.  They are also 10/100 nics.
>
> The etherboot module that I built from Rom-o-matic.com and installed into
> the old clients' grub is unchanged.  I did have to specify the tftp
> pxelinux.0 for all of the old boxes in the dhcpd-server.conf file for them
> to boot.  This took me a little while to sort out.  It just failed without
> specifically calling for each mac...  Maybe this has something to do with
> it.
>
> The newer boxes just boot fine with the default dhcpd-server.conf...
>
> What I'll do next is specify each client in the /etc/hosts file- this isn't
> done yet.  Have you added your clients to the hosts file?
>
> I did add a custom lst.conf file to /var/bla/bla/bla somewhere with the
> LDM_DIRECTX=*True* and it made a small difference to boot time.
>
> My server is a 3 or 4 year old twin 64 bit xenon with 6 gigs ram.  It has
> never been bogged down before.  Client speeds have always been like
> stand-alone systems.  I had not installed flash on the old K12LTSP system
> and kept games like Nibbles off of my system.
>
> I am happy with the Ubuntu-ltsp implementation and look forward to setting
> up local apps.  What I really want to get running is Roberta Arkiletian's
> fl_teachertool up and running.  It is a gem.  I expect we'll get through
> this pretty soon- it's just another minor hurdle ;-)
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
> =================================
>
> Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:31:12 -0600
> From: David Groos <djgroos at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Too much network activity?
> To: Edubuntu Users Group <edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID:
>        <195a0730911140831j3445cba1pdcd7f4217e93e705 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> Seeing Jim's e-mail about his computers being slow to log on is motivating
> me to re-post to this previous post.  I'll repeat that since the last few
> weeks, students have to wait maybe 2-4 minutes for their log on process to
> finish.  I don't think it's worse in the afternoon though--students are
> less
> patient at that time it seems.
>
> I haven't added new software to my LTSP server except for regular updates.
> I've had System Monitor on the last week a good bit.  2 things draw my
> attention, the first I already mentioned that there is a lot of network
> activity even when only 1 TC is booted.  The other is that the 4 CPU's seem
> to be maxing out for a few seconds then go to around 60-70% about for 5-10
> seconds, then again max out for a few seconds.  When they peg at 100% it
> appears that's when another TC or 2 will get further logged in.  I'm not
> sure about how much logging in happens during that maxing out period, but
> that is when the logging in process seems to get furthered.
>
> I went to the logs, looked at a few but didn't know where to look and
> nothing really jumped out to me.  Any thoughts about how to further
> troubleshoot this?  Might be related to Jim's TC problems, too, anyone else
> experiencing this?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
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