LTSP sarge performance issues /was Re: dpkg --get-selections (LTSP/Sarge)

[RalfGesellensetter <rgx@gmx.de>]

Hi there,

I was surprised not to find anyone who was able or willing to send me a 
list of files installed on a thin-client server. 

I managed to transfer a workstation installation in the same manner. As 
a conclusion, I plan to create and publish a dpkg-list myself in a qemu 
surrounding.

Am Montag, 23. Mai 2005 13:48 schrieb Harald Thingelstad:
> There's a high risk that the user database (ldap, that is) is going
> to be unusable after the upgrade.

This is true for combo-servers. But (as mentioned) I run a mere LTSP - 
seperate from tjener.

...

Eventually I reinstalled from scratch (successfully) and moved over some 
conf files (like dhcp3). After following Finn-Arne's instructions, I 
got all functionality.

We still have a problem with performance. Most drastically in KDE 
sessions of users that are in the central LDAP database, but also with 
fluxbox as 'local' usere, from time to time we got system hangs. We 
will have to keep on watching to get the reason, the usual suspects 
have been checked (nscd, mii-tool, ...). 

I gathered a list of starting points for further examination -- your 
appreciated experience might lead us to further points:

* Wait and drink tea (maybe it is only the hardware raid mirroring that 
steals hard disc performance (hdparm -t delivers 10-20 MBps "only").

* Try out alternative ltsp-kernel - maybe there is an issue with the nic 
driver? How can I turn off the auto negotiation of the thin clients' 
nics?

* Watch on the log files (no specifically striking entries yet)

* Try different session types with ltsp4 (console, nxclient)

* Upgrade whole system to make sure all libraries match each other (nscd 
does match libc6 at least)

All in all my feeling is that there are two bottle necks: the thin 
client network choking if getting calm after a big amount of traffic 
(maybe also too much traffic for X sessions (not only KDE). Plus a 
repeatingly poor connection to NFS exports (or LDAP database).

> Personally, after having spent days with such efforts, I ended up
> back with a woody install. Workstations (and quite likely, thin
> client servers) interface well with the Sarge/Woody differences, and
> that's most of my troubles.

interface? or interfer? We have been using sarge workstations with venus 
tjener w/o trouble...

Thanks
Regards
Ralf