Slow Network - Fedora 16 LXDE - Iptables or NFS

[Dors]

Hi guys, I just upgraded from Fedora 12.
Everything is forking fine, firewall, smb, nfs, the only problem is than my network is really slow...
I use nat to share internet and since the update is only slow on linux, If I use the connection from a windows pc everything works fine, but on the same pc using Fedora 16 it turns slow.
I used the same configuration on my Fedora 12 Server, transfering files with NFS was a bit fast 8MBps but on Fedora 16 it went down to 4Mb.
What could be the reason? Iptables or nfs configuration?
Thanks

BTW: Im using as client F16 64 bits and as server F16 32 bits

[george_toolan]

Is this a wireless network or something?

[Dors]

Nope its wired. Everybody is having trouble with wireless, but my problem is wired networking. I guess its a processor issue, everytime I transfer files my cpu goes to 100%

[george_toolan]

How slow is the server and how much memory does it have?

free
top

Even my old P3 can handle up to 200 mbit/s before the cpu becomes the limiting factor.

You can test raw network throughput with ioperf or ftp transfers.

You can temporarily disable nat and iptables. You don't need that for local network testing.

[jpollard]

It can also depend on what else you are doing.

Remember, since F15 all user processes from a single login are run through the same cgroup, and that can cause CPU thrashing during large IO operations.

[Dors]

First of all thanks for your answers and time.
My "server" is a p3 with 380mb ram. Thats why i changed from gnome to lxde to reduce resources consumption. But apparently there must be something else.

PHP Code:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        379524     340108      39416          0       9204     242656
-/+ buffers/cache:      88248     291276
Swap:       819196      34540     784656 


PHP Code:

top - 06:50:34 up 11:32,  2 users,  load average: 0.14, 0.89, 1.29
Tasks: 132 total,   2 running, 130 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 15.0%us, 14.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 68.3%id,  0.0%wa,  2.0%hi,  0.7%si,  0.0%st
Mem:    379524k total,   371988k used,     7536k free,    12804k buffers
Swap:   819196k total,    34540k used,   784656k free,   266728k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
  983 root      20   0 50400 9856 3312 R 15.7  2.6  33:40.56 X                  
 1231 M4ch1n4   20   0 26760  14m 2100 S 10.5  3.9   2:29.54 x11vnc             
 2176 M4ch1n4   20   0 96068 9964 8096 S  2.0  2.6   0:02.08 lxterminal         
 2236 M4ch1n4   20   0  2888 1036  792 R  1.3  0.3   0:00.49 top                
  713 root      10 -10  3268 3116 2268 S  0.3  0.8   0:04.81 iscsid             
 1229 M4ch1n4   20   0 95628 6768 5176 S  0.3  1.8   0:01.66 pcmanfm            
    1 root      20   0  5476 2592 1152 S  0.0  0.7   0:03.80 systemd            
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.06 kthreadd           
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:01.86 ksoftirqd/0        
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.01 watchdog/0         
    8 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 cpuset             
    9 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper            
   10 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kdevtmpfs          
   11 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 netns              
   12 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.12 sync_supers        
   13 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 bdi-default 


So apparently cpu is not an issue, but ram...What could be consuming so much ram? I can see the detail with top.
Thanks again

BTW 200mb/s on lan??? I was so happy when I reached 8 mb/s with nfs xD

[sea]

According to your top output, these eat the most resources.
1) x11vnc (14 mb)
2) lxterminal (~10 mb)
3) X (9mb)
4) pcmanfm (7mb)

If you are NOT using SCSI drives, maybe you can disable the iscsi service? (do at your own risk!)
This could save about 3 mb of ram.

EDIT:
Other than that, why use any DE für a 'plain' server?
---------
Comes to mind, does your 'server' happen to have an old network card?
Like 10/100mbit? That would be something around 12 mb at max.
And if the hdd of the server is running with 5400 or even 3600 rpm, that could cause a bottleneck as well.

[Dors]

Thanks for your answer.

Well my drive is a 7200 rpm hdd, so thats not the problem.
My netword cards are 10/100, even my switch. the problem here is that with fedora 12 I could get speeds up to 8mb but with fedora 16 I get 4mb max...Im using the same hardware, so definetly is a software issue, mayeb this new nfs version, I dont know.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by jpollard

It can also depend on what else you are doing.

Remember, since F15 all user processes from a single login are run through the same cgroup, and that can cause CPU thrashing during large IO operations.

Not with the unlimited memory default for the F16 cgroups.

Originally Posted by Dors

Hi guys, I just upgraded from Fedora 12[...] but on the same pc using Fedora 16 it turns slow.[...]

Originally Posted by Dors

First of all thanks for your answers and time.
My "server" is a p3 with 380mb ram.
[....]

According to the F16 release notes ....

Although some configurations might work on a Pentium 3, most users should consider a Pentium 4 or more modern processor,[...].

Minimum RAM for text-mode: 768 MiB
Minimum RAM for graphical: 768 MiB
Recommended RAM for graphical: 1152 MiB

You need a small-mem distro for that machine.

[jpollard]

Stevea - it still thrashes.

The best way to make large copies and not hang the GUI is to use a different login - I use the console virtual terminals to get a new login.

Large copies are not a problem then.

Only thing I've been able to identify from it is a CPU saturation. Not a memory issue at all.

[Elizandro]

Originally Posted by Dors

Hi guys, I just upgraded from Fedora 12.
Everything is forking fine, firewall, smb, nfs, the only problem is than my network is really slow...
I use nat to share internet and since the update is only slow on linux, If I use the connection from a windows pc everything works fine, but on the same pc using Fedora 16 it turns slow.
I used the same configuration on my Fedora 12 Server, transfering files with NFS was a bit fast 8MBps but on Fedora 16 it went down to 4Mb.
What could be the reason? Iptables or nfs configuration?
Thanks

BTW: Im using as client F16 64 bits and as server F16 32 bits

Try to remove file /etc/modprobe.conf and reboot system.

[]´s

[Dors]

Thanks for your answers and time guys!
I read about the memory upgrade since fedora 15, but I read that that was a anaconda requirement, at least you dont need that much for LXDE.
Well theres something wrong...I went back to fedora 12 and my speed is even worse, now I transfer files using nfs at 2MBs... I dont know if theres something wrong with my hardware (client or server side) or cables, I dont know, the only thing that I changed recently was my client bios.
Any ideas?
Thanks again

---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 AM ----------

Well I started changing cables and now im back to 5-6 mb/s.
I didnt think that will affect that much. Both of them are cat 5 cables...
I guess ill give fedora 16 one more try, but there must be something else becasue I still cant reach 8mb/s like before

[jpollard]

Might verify that the interface is in full duplex mode...

[Dors]

How can I do that?
Thanks

[bensonparis]

No permanent solution of this problem.