Subject: RE: [netatalk-admins] AS IP speeds
From: Bob Atkins (bob@cherokee.digilink.net)
Date: Thu Jan 07 1999 - 23:47:07 EST
System: Compaq Proliant 5500
200MHz PentPro
256M RAM
Triple UltraWide SCSI
RAID using 2 UltraWide SCSI
100M Ethernet (full duplex)
OS: Solaris 2.6 Kernel patch level 09
netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.1.1
Network:Fully switched 10/100
I can understand _some_ performance degradation for the dual file
model that is used to support the Mac filesystem but I don't believe
that it would cause a severe slowdown in a Unix system that is capable
of handling thousands - if not millions of simultaneous file accesses.
I have a dual PentPro system with 37G of stripe handling a full Usenet
feed, expiring 4 times daily and serving several *hundred* readers and
it more than keep up. It has (at any given time) more than 4.7 million
files in 65000+ directories and is accessing thousands of files
simultaneaously from hundreds of independant processes. I just don't
buy that Unix can't handle writing or reading to 2 files efficiently.
On a quiet server an 8MB file will take 16-17 seconds to copy from a
G3/300 Mac 8.1 system using AppleshareIP (not Appletalk/Ethertalk). The
*same* file can be transfered to the same system fromthe same client
using Fetch in 3 seconds! The performance degradation with netatalk is
suprising. Granted netatalk is faster than CAP but its still *way*
slower than it could be.
The worst part of this is that a WinNT box running Appleshare using
Appletalk/Ethertalk can perform the same transfer of the 8MB file in
about 6-8 seconds! Less than half the time and using a less efficient
protocol, Appletalk. Its embarrassing to say the least.
Is there anything that can be done to improve netatalk performance?
The pressure is on to switch over to - ugh - NT :(
--- Bob Atkins
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Sat Dec 18 1999 - 16:16:09 EST