Very Computer

I am planning to use a RedHat Linux box with Samba to share NT
applications which would be installed on PCs. With a single network
card, the system runs very slow if I try to install even one
application. I want to know how to setup mutliple NICs for network
performance increase on RedHat Linux.
   Basically 2 or more Ethernet NIC's would plug-in into the same
network and would respond alternately to provide additional
performance.
  Any help would be highly appreciated.

  Kevin.

The big trick here would be how to direct traffic to one or the other
network card. Basically, if all client PCs still see the same IP address,
they *will* connect to the same NIC - unless you invest in a
load-balancing router and some serious configuration trickery.

Do you actually know that the network is the bottleneck? What kind of
network is it - 10MB, 100MB? If so, you might be better off upgrading to
the next-higher category, either to 100MB or to gigabit ethernet. Also,
make sure you have a 10/100 switch (not a hub; a hub drags everything to
10MB if you have just one 10MB NIC connected).

Quite frankly, I would be surprised if the network really was the
bottleneck if just one client installing off the server can bring it
down. It's more likely that the server itself is bogged down with too
much disk access. No matter how big the pipe you connect to the server,
or how many pipes you connect, it just can't provide data at more than a
particular rate. And requesting one large file is just about the worst
you can do for server performance, because there is no caching mechanism
that can really help you much.

Ingo

This is called ethernet bonding, there is documentation in your
/usr/src/linux/documentation for this.  To do this you need to either do it
at BOTH ends (2 bonded ethernet cards in each machine connected by
cross-over cable) OR you need a switch that supports it.
--
moonie ;)

Registered Linux User #175104
ICQ# 83003404
AIM: mooniesdl3

DNS round robin would work too

I would check your network for errors first.
Look for a duplex mismatch.
Look for CRC errors or late collisions.

Quote:> I am planning to use a RedHat Linux box with Samba to share NT
> applications which would be installed on PCs. With a single network
> card, the system runs very slow if I try to install even one
> application. I want to know how to setup mutliple NICs for network
> performance increase on RedHat Linux.
>    Basically 2 or more Ethernet NIC's would plug-in into the same
> network and would respond alternately to provide additional
> performance.
>   Any help would be highly appreciated.

>   Kevin.

What kind of numbers are you expecting here?  What sort of network topology
do you have?  Let's say you have a 100BaseT hub.  Having two NICs on the
server won't help you much.  Alternatively, you have a 100BaseT switch, and
you connect your server's two NICs.  If your SAMBA server supports load sharing
(I don't know that it does, but it may), then having two NICs could potentially
speed things up.  But, your best bet is to have a 100BaseT switch with
one gigabit port, and use a gigabit NIC in the server.  It means much less
configuration hassle, at the added expense of the gigaport, and the NIC.
I can easily provide multiple clients with 100BaseT wire speed (using NFS,
not SAMBA, which seems to be a horribly inefficient protocol) using
a server with a gigabit NIC.

as for "system runs very slow if I try to install even one application"... well,
before going ahead and trying to scale up your NICs, you should be debugging your network
layer (as the reponse above suggests).

Dave