Lessons Learned Tuning HP's SMB Server with the FSCT Benchmark

As part of an ongoing effort to increase performance of our NAS system, we have been tuning the system’s performance on the FSCT benchmark. As part of this effort, we have learned a number of things about the benchmark which might be of general interest. Areas which will be discussed include an overview of the benchmark, setup and configuration steps required to run the benchmark and insight into understanding the results and errors generated by running FSCT. The intention is to discuss “what we learned about the benchmark while using it to make our system faster”, including what SMB protocol elements it uses, what impact newer SMB features like leases have, etc.

Learning Objectives

Understand what the FSCT benchmark is, and what it measures
Understand the roles of each system involved in the FSCT benchmark
Be aware of the various FSCT scenario types and the requests FSCT makes
Be able to interpret the data output by the FSCT benchmark