[OT-ish] nfs v. samba

[Michael R. Head]

On Fri, 2005-10-28 at 09:25 -0400, Todd Slater wrote:
> I've been trying to come up with a system to share files in my home
> network consisting of a desktop computer and a laptop, using a
> wireless router. Both are Breezy, but I sometimes boot my laptop to
> WindowsXP, but don't plan on needing to access files on my Breezy box
> from XP.

I use nfs to share my mp3s around my home network. I achieve very high
transfer rates.

> I recently set up NFS to share files linux to linux. After mounting
> the shared directory I tried transferring some files; the transfer was
> incredibly slow. A folder of jpegs about 5.5 MB took well over 4
> minutes. I say this is incredibly slow because when I ran Mandrake
> (RIP) with samba, I could transfer a 700 MB file in like 6 minutes or
> something (Windows and linux).

Do you have the sync option set? Here's my setup:

server's /etc/exports line:
/home/users/albums *.burner(ro,all_squash,anonuid=65534,anongid=100,async)

client's /etc/fstab line:
suppressingfire:/home/users/albums /albums nfs ro,auto  0       0


I get close to the theoretical max of 12MBps on my 100Mbit switched
network. When I use samba via nautilus, transfers are much slower,
though I don't have numbers on that.

> I've also tried scp/sftp, which is slower and seems kind of silly for
> what I'm after anyway.

Yes, it can be quite slow comparatively, but it's the only reasonably
safe way to make a writable share. (I use nfs for readonly access)

> 
> I googled a little and found a few threads about NFS being slower that
> samba, but mine seems *really* slow. I'd consider running samba
> instead of NFS, but for Breezy-Breezy that seems kind of silly, too. I
> found reference to OpenAFS, but I'm afraid it might be a bit over my
> head.
> 
> Soooo, might I have a problem with the way NFS is set up that would
> explain the slowness? Any recommendations for sharing files on my
> network?
> 
> Thanks,
> Todd
> 
-- 
Michael R. Head <burner at suppressingfire.org>