Checking in image via CIFS is really really slow

[anna_kane]

Hi,

We are prototyping an image management solution where there will be a lot of images checked into Alfresco. They would be checked in via CIFS, and we are just floored by the performance. Drag-and-drop an image file into the Alfresco shared drive takes between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and during that time, Alfresco is not responding at all. While the image is dragged into the shared drive, we are trying to refresh the web client at the same time, but the server totally hangs. Even for image files that less than 20KB, Alfresco still hangs for 1 minute, during which no one can access it.

And the server will end up with the following error:

org.alfresco.jlan.netbios.win32.WinsockNetBIOSException: 10054:SendSocket - Conn
ection reset by peer
        at org.alfresco.jlan.netbios.win32.Win32NetBIOS.SendSocket(Native Method
)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.netbios.win32.NetBIOSSocket.write(NetBIOSSocket.jav
a:210)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.win32.WinsockNetBIOSPacketHandler.writeP
acket(WinsockNetBIOSPacketHandler.java:212)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.SMBSrvSession.sendResponseSMB(SMBSrvSess
ion.java:1467)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.SMBSrvSession.sendResponseSMB(SMBSrvSess
ion.java:1436)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.NTProtocolHandler.procWriteAndX(NTProtoc
olHandler.java:5164)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.NTProtocolHandler.runProtocol(NTProtocol
Handler.java:279)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.SMBSrvSession.runHandler(SMBSrvSession.j
ava:1398)
        at org.alfresco.jlan.smb.server.SMBSrvSession.run(SMBSrvSession.java:131
9)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

This happens to image and office (Excel and Word) files. No problem with pdf files, I can drag in a pdf file and it is checked in right away, even if the file is pretty large.

However, if I check in images via the web client, there's no performance problem. The image and office files are checked in instantaneously.

What is going on?

Here are my system config:

OS: Windows XP (SP2)
DB: PostgreSQL 8.3.0
Java: JDK 1.5.0_12
Alfresco: 2.9B
CPU: AMD 64
RAM: 2GB
HD: 10,000RPM SATA

[pmonks]

Is there anything in between the client and the server (eg. a firewall)?  The "connection reset by peer" error indicates that the socket connection is being dropped (which can take a little time for both the client and the server to detect) and many firewalls (for example) block CIFS by default.

To test this theory without knowing the network topology, try mounting CIFS locally (on the Alfresco server itself) and see if that works.  If so then it's not a problem with Alfresco but rather something awry with the network.

Cheers,
Peter

[anna_kane]

Thanks for replying, but this does not explain it, for the following reasons:

1. Yes, I'm doing in locally, that is, accessing the shared drive on the machine that is running Alfresco.

2. Yes, there is a firewall, but that does not explain it, does it? As I have no problem at all dragging pdf files.

Any idea?

Thanks

anna

[pmonks]

Do you have any rules configured in that space that would apply to image and office files but not PDFs? If so, are they configured to run synchronously or in the background?

Cheers,
Peter

[anna_kane]

Hi Peter,

No I don't have any rule right now, it's a fresh install, unless there is any built-in rules. I turned off the firewall, and I'm getting the same result.

Thanks

anna

[chen_shaopeng]

Seems like NetBIOS is timing out? Look in your Services control panel to see if "TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper" is running. Make sure it is running, otherwise NetBIOS name resolution may have problem, resulting in a timeout.

[dgenard]

Hi, I'm not sure if it will help, but I've had a similar issue with a former Alfresco release.
It was caused by the anti-virus on the server.
The full story : http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2829

Denis

[anna_kane]

Sorry for the late reply, was out of town.

Thanks chen_shaopeng, that's exactly the problem. As soon as I start up the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service, everything becomes normal. But I still don't understand why checking in a PDF file had no problem.