[K12OSN] OT: Sluggish file server

[David Hopkins]

> Let us know what you figure out.

Over the weekend I checked the backups and they weren't the issue.  I
still get 8 nsfd processes running and the load average still gets
fairly high (6-9 on a dual processor system).  After looking at the
logs, it seems to be related to smb (though why that would cause nsfd
processes to spawn is unknown).  The spikes occur when the teachers
connect to the windows terminal server to access the web-based SIS
(which only works properly with IE6, so perhaps browser-based SIS is
more accurate, and the state paid a lot of money to have this program
developed by a major company in this area, but that is a different
issue).

Because we have not been able to get teachers to cleanly log off when
using rdesktop, we added an 'attendence' icon to all teachers'
desktops that launches rdesktop with the -s option which automatically
launches IE6 and connects to the state SIS in a full screen mode
without decorations. When they exit, it then ends the session
correctly.  The spikes occur when all the teachers use the attendance
icon, but only on Mondays. The state has recently implemented
Lightspeed and I see numerous connection attempts against the (smb)
servers by the lightspeed software so perhaps this is related.

Sincerely,
Dave Hopkins