Bad performance opening files directly on the NAS that are shared via CIFS.

[politick]

Hi,

I'm running:
FreeNAS Build FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-p1-x64 (9591)
Platform AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 631 Quad-Core Processor
Memory 8158MB
System Time Fri May 4 22:32:40 2012
OS Version FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p6

My network is on a gigabit switch.

Does someone have an explanation why when I open a file directly on the server, very often, but not always,
it will take for ever but eventually open; But if I copy (drag and drop) the same file to my desktop it's always extremely fast?
This happens with word files, visio files, ... all office files and pictures as well when opened with "Windows Photo Viewer".

It looks like if there's some sort of timeout that occurs before the file is actually read from the server.
Is there a way to fix this on my Windows 7 client computers? Maybe a registry fix?

I've attached a picture of some performance when transferring big files,
I can assure there's no bottle neck on the CPU, memory, disk or network.
The disks are all SATA Hitachi 7k rpm.

Thank you,
Martin Politick.

 

[ProtoSD]

Hi Martin,

Take a look at this thread, there are some tips that I posted that seemed to help. I'd start with the CIFS auxilary settings listed there, and if that doesn't help, try adding the the "loader" settings to the GUI under System->Tunables.

http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?5338-Browsing-directories-slow

-- Proto

 

[politick]

Thank you Proto,

But I believe my problem, although a similar symptom, is different because it only happens if I'm opening or editing a file directly on the NAS.
The file does not need to be very large. Like I said, most Window's Office files will have this issue. But I can copy the file to my computer fast with no problem.

I really feels like a Windows 7 "security checking" / "File locking" .. "Something with a remote file" ...
type of problem. And that's what is weird, the files can be small some times and still have this long "download" time.

Thx,
Martin Politick

 

[ProtoSD]

Hi again Martin,

I updated the link in my post above because after referring someone else to it I realized it was the wrong thread. I still believe the settings in the updated thread above will help with your problem.

I used to live close to Montreal, south of the border. You're lucky to live in such a nice city! ;)

-- Proto