Samba Questions/Issues

gdeeble · 10-23-2010, 11:54 AM

Good Afternoon to everyone reading this. Up front I want to say thank you for any help received and please don't shoot me for this, but I'm still relatively new to the Linux scene. I've began to configure my server recently for my home, to provide file/print sharing on top of other features and seem to have issues with Samba, providing adequate speeds and access control. I have posted on the forums for CentOS which is what I running. It's a 5.5 64-bit running on a little 1.6GHZ AMD Chip with 1 gig of ram. The network card is a Via 10/100 on board NIC attacted to a 10/100/1000 router as well. I have made sure I have all the updates on the unit, and have followed all the tutorials to the best of my knowledge about speed issues and access control. I even went as far as asking my friend in IT at my job to review my smb.conf file to make sure I wasn't being stupid and over looking something. What I want to have is 4 folders, which are visible to all users, when they open the computer, but of all of them, I want them to be able to access 2 of them with read only access, but when I log in I want to be able to read and write to all of them. I have set up groups in linux, for me to be part of and added the code for write list which seems not to help on the 2 read only shares. On top of that, when I try to log in to the 2 directories with permissions to view once authorized, it's a royal pain, where it keeps asking for the password as if it were wrong. At this point, I'm asking for any support, or even direction which could further help me with this. This doesn't mean hand me the answer(as most people like, but then don't grasp it or learn it and again will ask again down the road, that's why I say that) if there has been something I missed but point me to where I can read more about it so I understand. I have attached my Samba Config file to better help with this issue.

Code:

[global]
;#General server settings
	netbios name = MD
	server string = MD File Server
	workgroup = mshome
	announce version = 5.0
	socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

;#Security
	passdb backend = tdbsam
	security = share
	null passwords = true
	;unix password sync = yes 
	encrypt passwords = yes 

;#File System Options
	username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

;#Windows Internet Name Server Support
	name resolve order = hosts wins bcast
	wins support = yes

;#Printing Options
	printing = CUPS
	printcap name = CUPS
	cups options = raw

;#Logging
	syslog = 1
	syslog only = yes

;#Browser Control Options
	local master = yes
	os level = 70
	preferred master = yes

[DVD Drive]
	path = /media/cdrom
	browseable = yes
	read only = yes
	guest ok = yes

[Music]
	comment = Music
	path = /Shared/Music
	;writable = yes
	browseable = yes
	guest ok = yes
	;read only = yes
	;read list = @FileAdmin
	write list = @FileAdmins

[Storage]
	comment = Storage Folder
	path = /Shared/Storage
	writable = yes
	browseable = yes
	guest ok = no
	valid users = @AuthUsers


[Web Root]
	comment = Web Site Root Directory
	path = /Shared/Web
	writable = yes
	browseable = yes
	guest ok = no
	valid users = @WebAdmins

[Video]
	comment = Movies, TV Shows, ETC
	path = /Shared/Video
	writable = yes
	browseable = yes
	guest ok = yes
	;read only = yes
	admin users = @FileAdmin Gary

[Printers]
	comment = All Printers
	path = /var/spool/samba
	printable = yes
	min print space = 2000
	use client driver = yes

The CentOS team asked me to post this for them, which has info on that network.

Code:

== BEGIN uname -rmi ==
2.6.18-194.el5 x86_64 x86_64
== END   uname -rmi ==

== BEGIN rpm -q centos-release ==
centos-release-5-5.el5.centos
== END   rpm -q centos-release ==

== BEGIN getenforce ==
Enabled
== END   getenforce ==

== BEGIN lspci ==
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800/K8N800/K8N800A [S3 UniChrome Pro] (rev 01)
== END   lspci ==

== BEGIN lspci -n ==
00:00.0 0600: 1106:0204
00:00.1 0600: 1106:1204
00:00.2 0600: 1106:2204
00:00.3 0600: 1106:3204
00:00.4 0600: 1106:4204
00:00.7 0600: 1106:7204
00:01.0 0604: 1106:b188
00:0f.0 0101: 1106:3149 (rev 80)
00:0f.1 0101: 1106:0571 (rev 06)
00:10.0 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 81)
00:10.1 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 81)
00:10.2 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 81)
00:10.3 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 81)
00:10.4 0c03: 1106:3104 (rev 86)
00:11.0 0601: 1106:3227
00:11.5 0401: 1106:3059 (rev 60)
00:11.6 0780: 1106:3068 (rev 80)
00:12.0 0200: 1106:3065 (rev 78)
00:18.0 0600: 1022:1100
00:18.1 0600: 1022:1101
00:18.2 0600: 1022:1102
00:18.3 0600: 1022:1103
01:00.0 0300: 1106:3108 (rev 01)
== END   lspci -n ==

== BEGIN ifconfig -a ==
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:D4:D1:95:2A  
          inet addr:192.168.1.151  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::213:d4ff:fed1:952a/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1068694 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1007974 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:634957683 (605.5 MiB)  TX bytes:617370332 (588.7 MiB)
          Interrupt:193 Base address:0x2000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:3988 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3988 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:3329408 (3.1 MiB)  TX bytes:3329408 (3.1 MiB)

sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4  
          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

== END   ifconfig -a ==

== BEGIN route -n ==
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     0      0        0 eth0
0.0.0.0         192.168.1.2     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
== END   route -n ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/resolv.conf ==
; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
nameserver 192.168.1.2
== END   cat /etc/resolv.conf ==

== BEGIN grep net /etc/nsswitch.conf ==
#networks:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#netmasks:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files     
netmasks:   files
networks:   files
netgroup:   nisplus
== END   grep net /etc/nsswitch.conf ==

== BEGIN chkconfig --list | grep -i network ==
NetworkManager 	0:off	1:off	2:off	3:off	4:off	5:off	6:off
network        	0:off	1:off	2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
== END   chkconfig --list | grep -i network ==

catkin · 10-24-2010, 08:07 AM

How are you and your users accessing the shares? Presumably from Windows computers on the same LAN ... ? What steps are they taking to mount the shares? Windows Explorer: Tools -> Map network drive? By name or by IP address? Are they able to browse the server in Windows Explorer -> My Network places -> Entire Network -> Microsoft Windows network? Are you able to ping the server from the Windows systems and vice versa?

Are you and your users logged on to Windows with a logon name that also exists on the server? Have you run smbpasswd for each of them on the server?

Is there anything appearing in the /var/log/samba/* files (assuming that's where they are on Centos)?

Have you tried running smbclient on the server itself?

gdeeble · 10-24-2010, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

How are you and your users accessing the shares? Presumably from Windows computers on the same LAN ... ? What steps are they taking to mount the shares? Windows Explorer: Tools -> Map network drive? By name or by IP address? Are they able to browse the server in Windows Explorer -> My Network places -> Entire Network -> Microsoft Windows network? Are you able to ping the server from the Windows systems and vice versa?

Are you and your users logged on to Windows with a logon name that also exists on the server? Have you run smbpasswd for each of them on the server?

Is there anything appearing in the /var/log/samba/* files (assuming that's where they are on Centos)?

Have you tried running smbclient on the server itself?

Sorry for not providing that info before. Yes it's sharing to my Windows machines(XP, Vista, 7). As for browsing them, I have used both IP Based connections and "Networks", both can read and write but both are still slow. I mean they seem to have about the same speeds(500K-1M) using a file of about 1.6gigs. My computers have a unix name associated with my windows name, minus a password on my windows machine. I can log in to the 2 restricted folders 50% of the time with a fight. I have used smbpasswd to set my password as well.

For pinging, from the Server to the client, it's an average of 2.5ms seek time. Client to Server is about 3ms.

The file logs, really have no information in them. The oldest one has a bunch of bad password length responses and here and there, connection reset by peer primarily.

I have ran SMBClient, which shows all the shares, it shows the 2 PC's currently online along with the server, the workgroup being MSHOME(Used windows Default) and Master being the server.

I have installed webmin recently, which should help me overall manage the server as well. So any tests, that can help, just let me know. Thanks for the support. -Gary

catkin · 10-24-2010, 01:49 PM

Have you tested the network performance using some other file transfer mechanism such as ftp, hhtp, rsync ... ? Is it a samba issue or a network issue?

gdeeble · 10-24-2010, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

Have you tested the network performance using some other file transfer mechanism such as ftp, hhtp, rsync ... ? Is it a samba issue or a network issue?

With FTP(vsftpd from CentOS), I see ~2M up. I don't know anything about rsync or even heard of hhtp. It's considerably faster, which would be more reasonable since it's not a machine I need to run extremely fast. By chance is there is a chance that it could be since it's only a 1.6ghz single core, with 1 gig of ram, that the 64bit OS is overkill on it?

Voper · 10-25-2010, 11:43 AM

Good morning, before I begin, I hope this is in the correct forum.

I am a novice with Linux. I am running (a converted win98 machine) Red Hat Linux.
It is connected to a home network with multiple XP machines. All firewalls (XP and Linux) have been disabled (something I would only do in such a location). Linux, using Samba, I can see the entire network. I can traverse any of the XP machines and their folders and I can transfer files from the Linux to the XP machines, I can open any XP file with no ill-effects. However with regard to XP, I can ping the Linux machine, but cannot see it on the network, nor connect to it.

Any help would greatly appreciated.

catkin · 10-25-2010, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voper

Good morning, before I begin, I hope this is in the correct forum.

I am a novice with Linux. I am running (a converted win98 machine) Red Hat Linux.
It is connected to a home network with multiple XP machines. All firewalls (XP and Linux) have been disabled (something I would only do in such a location). Linux, using Samba, I can see the entire network. I can traverse any of the XP machines and their folders and I can transfer files from the Linux to the XP machines, I can open any XP file with no ill-effects. However with regard to XP, I can ping the Linux machine, but cannot see it on the network, nor connect to it.

Any help would greatly appreciated.

It is not regarded as good netiquette to ask a new question in somebody else's thread, for the very good reason that answering two questions in the same thread can get very confusing.

Welcome to LQ. Please start a new thread for your question.

catkin · 10-25-2010, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdeeble

With FTP(vsftpd from CentOS), I see ~2M up. I don't know anything about rsync or even heard of hhtp. It's considerably faster, which would be more reasonable since it's not a machine I need to run extremely fast. By chance is there is a chance that it could be since it's only a 1.6ghz single core, with 1 gig of ram, that the 64bit OS is overkill on it?

2 Mbps sounds more like a WAN/Internet speed than a LAN speed. The intention was to test the LAN speed between the (samba) server and a Windows system on your network to see if the problem is in your network protocol stacks and LAN or in samba. Can you set up your server with an FTP service and use it from Windows as FTP client and see what the throughput is? It should be limited by the LAN so ~ 100 Mbps (or 10 Mbps if you are using very old NICs and/or hub/switch).

It is unlikely that the problem is caused by the server's low CPU and memory spec because network throughput capacity is very much lower than CPU and memory throughput capacity.

Voper · 10-25-2010, 01:37 PM

my apologies.

gdeeble · 10-25-2010, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

2 Mbps sounds more like a WAN/Internet speed than a LAN speed. The intention was to test the LAN speed between the (samba) server and a Windows system on your network to see if the problem is in your network protocol stacks and LAN or in samba. Can you set up your server with an FTP service and use it from Windows as FTP client and see what the throughput is? It should be limited by the LAN so ~ 100 Mbps (or 10 Mbps if you are using very old NICs and/or hub/switch).

It is unlikely that the problem is caused by the server's low CPU and memory spec because network throughput capacity is very much lower than CPU and memory throughput capacity.

That was directly to the server. It shouldn't be going out to the internet for that transaction but back to my router. It is limited to 85Mbps due to Homeplug adapters between my desktop and router, but never the less then this seems to be a network issue, would you say? I mean that's the only thing I can honestly think of if you say it should be much quicker than what I was see. Also that couldn't be outside traffic because that fact that my DSL connection upload is only 700Kbps max(Really poor DSL and Cable options in these parts of the woods). I mean I'd be satisfied even seeing somewhere in the ball park of 3-5Mb/s communicating. 2Mb/s is what I meant earlier but even that's better than over Samba.

gdeeble · 10-25-2010, 02:32 PM

Well, After speaking to a buddy of mine who helped me set up my network, we found the slow speed issue. So in my ignorant state, I kept blaming the box, however, my buddy told me hard wire the desktop in to my router, and low and be hold, either a) it's a bad cable or b) a bad adapter, as I get 10Mb/s between samba and my desktop. Which resolves the speed issue, but as far as ACL's setting it up so that the share doesn't ask for a log in unless a change is being made, is my next battle.

gdeeble · 10-28-2010, 12:46 AM

So out of the frying pan and into the fire with this server. After correcting all the issues with the network speeds, wonderfully enough, I see 5-10Mb/s over the network with devices hard wired in, but still slow over wireless. That's the least of my concern for the wireless as I know its something to do with a setting somewhere on my laptops or router. The new problem I'm facing is, when I send over a big load of files, 2+ gigs of data, it seems like the server begins to get upset and fiesty saying it don't want to deal with it. My thought is it might be memory limitations on the server side but not sure. When I talked to my admin at work, they recommended running the "top" command from bash as root and see what the server says it's load and usages were. When I did a file transfer over it seemed to spike the load to 12.x on 1 minute and the 5 and 15 minute intervals were between 3 and 6.x. The CPU usage was low but the memory seemed to be maxing out. That's why I think it was memory issues, but not sure. I've disabled any add-ons not needed and disabled the samba daemon from needing to do logging, but I'm wondering if there is something in the config that might be causing higher than normal loads and memory usage that I'm missing. Catkin, with your great knowledge, could you suggest me in the right direction again like before? It seems you have a great gift of sending me down the right path to check.

. Thanks -Gary

catkin · 10-28-2010, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdeeble

The new problem I'm facing is, when I send over a big load of files, 2+ gigs of data, it seems like the server begins to get upset and fiesty saying it don't want to deal with it.

What are the symptoms and/or messages that indicate the gloriously colourful but not very specific "upset and fiesty saying it don't want to deal with it"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdeeble

When I did a file transfer over it seemed to spike the load to 12.x on 1 minute and the 5 and 15 minute intervals were between 3 and 6.x.

top's load averages show how many processes are queued. During your test, chances are that processes were waiting for disk or network I/O. That's as expected but I don't know if 12 is reasonable or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdeeble

... but the memory seemed to be maxing out.

What makes you think that? When there's significant I/O activity Linux will allocate unused memory to I/O buffers so runs with almost no free memory and people often interpret this as indicating a memory shortage. It's not, because Linux will take back I/O buffers when it needs memory. A better indicator of memory sufficiency is whether there is any swapping.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdeeble

... but I'm wondering if there is something in the config that might be causing higher than normal loads and memory usage that I'm missing.

Let's be sure that the loads and/or memory usage is higher than normal before worrying about the samba config.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdeeble

Catkin, with your great knowledge, could you suggest me in the right direction again like before? It seems you have a great gift of sending me down the right path to check.

You are very kind but I only asked questions -- you figured out the solutions

gdeeble · 10-28-2010, 11:15 AM

Haha, True Catkin, but I appreciate all your help. Makes more sense about the memory and buffering which makes it mistakingly seem like it's maxing out. As for the load, I mean I read about it and explained it like a bridge and the admin said you really don't want it backing up, a lot, as it's really bad and causes lag. That's why I think the load is rather bad, plus at the same time, I attempt to do anything else via VNC, or web min, the system is at a dead stop and takes several minutes to respond once the load cranks up. But the problem is when transferring files mainly bigger files, the computer will slow down, lock up and cause the transfer to disconnect, making the samba share go down till the pc comes back to more average load speeds. When I say slow down, both the server access to any of its applications and the network speed will drop. I start out at somewhere in the ball park of 10Mb/s and then by the time its about to drop the files and connection its down to 4-5Mb/s and file transfer is halted. Once this is figured out then back to the access control list and also figuring out how to ensure my external drive and server files match using rsync or some other program that many people recommend. Thanks for the help in advance. -Gary

gdeeble · 11-05-2010, 11:08 AM

So I am at a stand still after about a week. I replaced the motherboard, upped the memory and proc, went to a gigabit NIC, and changed from a Logical Vol. to partitioning the drives all the way. My laptop with a gigabit NIC, transfers to the server at ~ 25Mb/s, where my desktop will transfer at ~ 10Mb/s(due to the 10/100 NIC). The only thing is the laptop dumped 13.6 gigs of data without a problem, where the desktop struggles to do so. They both run the same OS, and have identical OS configurations. The only difference is my NIC. Drivers on the windows machine is up to date as well. It seems like it's having an issue with any speeds connected via 100 megabits. Any suggestions to that one? I know the router, and server are definitely working right. And I know using partitions seemed to help performance over all. I'm just at another road block as usual

haha. -Gary