Slowness to open a big file stored in a shared folder of a remote Windows file server

[matthewik.lee]

Hi,

In the office, try to open a big-size file stored in a shared folder of a Windows server in our IDC and it takes long. The WAN link between the office and the IDC is 4Mbps IP VPN.

For example, to open a 30MB file(pdf) from a PC in the office, it takes 5 min to finish.

But if copy it to the PC, it takes only 2min.

>> Is it normal? Any ways to improve it?

As the file is managed by a couple of staffs, they need open it directly from the shared folder.

Please share ideas. Thanks

Matthew

[Tomas de Leon]

Mathew,

Just curious do you have an ACI Fabric in your Data Center?  Asking because you posted in the ACI forum.

That said, there is no easy answer here with the information provided.  We would simply be guessing.  Some suggestions though. 

• Expand your testing sample set.  For example, compare opening PDF files at each location by using different file sizes.  Use a 1mb, 5mb, 10mb, 15mb, 20mb, 25mb, and 30mb file sizes and record times to open these files at each location.  Compare results.
• Use different browsers.  For example; IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.  There are known performance issues with opening PDF files using IE.  Just Google for slow performance opening PDF files.
• Use different test methods for speed testing.  Use FileZilla or some other tool to use for file transferring the forementioned different files sizes to transfer to host from each location.  Make sure to test using FTP & SFTP protocols.  Record the times.
• SInce you mentioned this is a windows file share, test the speeds of copying the forementioned different files sizes from the server to your laptop when at each location.  There may be some issues or improvements that you can configure on the server or the laptop for files sharing configuration to help speeds.
• Do you have a firewall or running firewall on your Windows devices?  Test with or without.
• Since you mentioned issue when behind the VPN,  Is your VPN router setup for Rate limiting?  Are you allocating bandwidth based on Class of Service?
• Run Wireshark on your laptop and capture a wireshark trace while opening the large file from each site.  See if the packet sizes change during the transfer, check the MTU sizes, are there retransmissions of packets,....

As you can see there are many things that can cause performance issues.  Some may be caused by the network devices, some by the applications, or a combination of variables..

I hope this helps some and thank you for using the Cisco Support Forum!

T.

[matthewik.lee]

Thanks Tomas for your comments.