HP CIFS Server 3.0b Administrator's Guide version A.02.01.01
HP-UX Configuration for HP CIFS
Configuring Kernel Parameters for HP CIFS
Chapter 12256
• nfile: when an SMBD process is launched, it will, right at the
beginning, take up 28 entries in the system file table.
This does not include any other files that the client will open and
operate on. At a minimum, therefore, the value of nfile, should be
equal to the anticipated number of simultaneous clients times
(28 + the anticipated number of files simultaneously opened by
each client). Again, this is necessary, but it may not be sufficient,
since there will be other non-HP CIFS processes that will have
files opened, concurrent with HP CIFS.
• ninode: unlike nfile, each instance on an open will NOT increase
the number of inode entries. Rather, each unique opened file will
only take up one entry, regardless of how many times it is
opened. Therefore this parameter should be set to the
anticipated number of UNIQUE open files used by HP CIFS plus
the number opened by other processes in the system.
• nflocks: each smbd process will utilize at least ten file locks.
Therefore, the value of nflocks should, at least, be equal to the
anticipated number of simultaneous clients, multiplied by ten
(10). The use of nflocks by other applications must also be
considered.
Swap Space Requirements
Due to the one-process-per-client model of HP CIFS, perhaps the most
stringent requirement imposed on the system is that of swap space.
HPUX reserves a certain amount of swap space for each process that is
launched, to prevent it from being aborted in case it needs to swap out
some pages during times of memory pressure. Other operating systems,
only reserve swap space when it is needed. This results in the process not
finding the swap space that it needs, in which case it has to be
terminated by the OS.
Each smbd process will reserve about 2 MB of swap space and depending
on the type of client activity, process size may grow up to 4 MB of swap
space. For a maximum of 2048 clients, 4 * 2048 or about 8 GB of swap
space would be required. Therefore, HP recommends configuring enough
swap space to accommodate the maximum number of simultaneous
clients connected to the HP CIFS server.