[OpenIndiana-discuss] CIFS performance issues

[Robin Axelsson]

On 2012-01-27 15:32, James Carlson wrote:
> On 01/27/12 08:28, Robin Axelsson wrote:
>> One way to make the system user-friendly is to make nwam automatically
>> configure IPMP when it detects two properly working ethernet connections
>> within the same subnet.
> My recollection is that automatic configuration of IPMP was on the list
> of things to do, but that it never got done.  It just wasn't the focus,
> because NWAM was initially designed to handle laptops and other simple
> systems, not servers.
>
> What NWAM is supposed to do is configure only one usable interface
> (guided by user selection criteria) for the system.  The fact that you
> got multiple interfaces configured is indeed an anomaly, and one I can't
> explain.  I don't know how you got there in the first place.  It
> shouldn't have happened.

I don't agree with you on that. Many motherboards come with dual 
ethernet ports (i.e. dual NICs, I have counted the chips myself) and it 
is not uncommon with laptops with one wired ethernet interface and a 
wireless one. So as you said, there is the potential risk of 
interference between the two interfaces even though one may not even be 
connected.

>
> Someone with a deeper understanding of the "new" NWAM would have to look
> at your system to find out what went wrong.  Unfortunately, I only
> remember details about the "old" one ...
>
>> Perhaps it already does so. If not it should at
>> least unplumb one connection to prevent the interference issues the
>> James Carlson was talking about, or at least give warning messages about
>> it. If we want to make it even more user friendly it could also have
>> monitoring features (such as /sbin/route monitor) and offer some
>> troubleshooting functionality or even warn about buggy drivers such as
>> the rge driver.
> That sounds backwards to me.  If a buggy driver exists, then the bugs
> should be fixed, or the driver should be discarded.  There's no reason
> on Earth to have some other bit of software "warning" users about
> someone else's software design failures, whether real or otherwise.  At
> best, that other software would just become a repository of uselessly
> independent misjudgment -- as new, unknown buggy drivers are written and
> old ones are repaired.
>

True, but what do you do when *all* you've got is a buggy driver that 
_may_ work well on your system? Either you use the driver or you go get 
a network card that is proven to work well with Solaris/OpenIndana. The 
thing is that a substantial part of the development of OI depends on the 
charity of willing developers and their spare time, so you have to make 
the best out of what you have at your disposal.