I have set up a samba share on my Linux server. I have a gigabit switch, gigabit NICs in each machine.
I have set up the /etc/samba/smb.conf to support no delay, 8192 send/receive buffers, etc. This helped the rate for Samba go from about 4MB/S to about 10MB/S, but I expect to see about 30MB/S or better when I get done.
FTP performance and Samba performance writing to the Linux box are both at around 9-10MB/Sec, about 1/3 what I would expect, and about 1/3 the speed of a read. On the Linux box is a 7200RPM SATA drive, which is pretty quick, and is using XFS which should handle the large files well which I send.
Now the funny IP networking part of the problem.
When I send via FTP or Samba, I see my activity lights on my switch flicker at about 500ms or so intervals. If I start a second transfer from the same machine, I apparently get full bandwidth, at about 30+MB/Sec overall.
Why would starting a second transfer from the same box to Linux 'Open the gate' as it were?
Thanks in advance,
Rex McDonald