rsync over vpn slowness

[Paul Gear]

On 26/04/10 15:25, Steve Thomas wrote:
> Don't know if anyone can help with this. It may be unique to Adelade U.
>
> Anyway, the one significant problem I have with Ubuntu is using vpn to 
> connect to servers at Adelaide. I maintain a site there, and develop 
> content for the site on my laptop. Whe I need to update the site, I 
> run rsync to upload changes from the laptop.
>
> All good until I upgraded to 8.10, when vpn went feral. Now on 9.10 
> and the problems continue.
>
> I've been through all the forums, and while there's lots about vpn 
> timing out, there's nothing that matches my specific symptoms.
>
> What happens is, vpn connects with no problems. I start an rsync, no 
> problem. It runs for a bit, but then appears to stall. If I wait long 
> enough, I find it's still connected and working. Eventually it may 
> finish. Sometimes it never finishes before I run out of patience. So 
> something is causing vpn to run really, really slow.
>
> And it's not the server, because if I try connecting to another server 
> in the same vpn session, that's really slow too.
>
> Running standard vpnc + network manager. And yes, I've tried all the 
> suggested alternatives. Makes no difference. Tempted to believe the 
> Uni just doesn't like Linux. :/
>
> Any ideas?

First thing i would do is take a network trace with wireshark and have a 
look for any DNS timeouts or other anomalies.  My first guess is DNS 
and/or routing misconfiguration.

After the VPN starts and before you start your rsync, try running the 
following from the command line:

netstat -rn
host your.rsync.server
ping your.rsync.server
telnet your.rsync.server (22|873) # depending on whether you use rsync 
over ssh or rsyncd

Feel free to post your results here, or if you're nervous about that, 
email me and i'll see what i can work out from it.

Paul

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