Steelhead Appliance

[ndfellow]

Has anyone found a fix to this issue?

[bgilbert]

There is a potential configuration that allows for overlapping opens to work and not impact the server-side users on the LAN. Since all access needs to go through a Steelhead, you can optionally place another Steelhead on the LAN side where the server resides.

The configuration involves redirecting the LAN user's CIFS traffic to go through the extra Steelhead. This can potentially be a smaller Steelhead since the only traffic impacted/re-directed is optimized CIFS traffic. I know this extra Steelhead and redirection method using PBR has been used by at least one customer with success.

I would definitely test out the overlapping opens feature first to make sure it improves performance. You could then decide on the option of the extra Steelhead.

[Zoboflobby]

That part of all data must pass through the steelhead is the deal killer, wish you could have mentioned that before. Our servers are in our primary site with the majority of our users.

I have also got the excel comment before too, always thought they were crazy.

[bgilbert]

Hi Bryon,

The optional overlapping opens mode is not for the common case. It is for applications where an application behaves by breaking an oplock within the application itself or when an application might not ask for an oplock in the first place. With overlapping opens, Steelhead appliances will manage the locking on a per application basis depending on the file extension that has been configured. This allows Steelhead appliances to safely apply layer-7 acceleration even when an application has broken a lock.

The key disadvantages of overlapping opens is that all access must go through a Steelhead. If the data being accessed does not go through a Steelhead and the Steelhead is managing the lock, the user accessing the data could be blocked. If you know that all access will go through a Steelhead than this mode may work for you.

Remember that you can limit the scope by identifying specific file extensions that will be included or omitted from this optimization.

I hope this helps.

[bryon.barkley]

Bob,

Not to go off topic, but can you elaborate on this overlapping feature? I get plenty of, "my word doc or excel spreadsheet" takes for ever to open. We are in the process of upgrading to 3.0.8 and was wandering if we might benefit from this feature. Our CIFS transfers look great, plenty of reduction and speed, but opening office application is not experiencing much improvement if any. Thanks

Bryon

[bgilbert]

Have you guys tried enabling the overlapping opens feature we added to RiOS 3.0? This allows you to configure Steelheads to manage the locks for certain applications that experience out-of-the-norm locking behaviors, which can limit layer-7 acceleration. When Steelhead manages the locks, layer-7 acceleration can take place. Some application contexts within Solidworks for example benefit from this configuration.

The config in your case would be to turn on Overlapping Opens and to enable the .gpk extension. This would confine Overlapping Opens to this application. Please try it out and post the results. The config is located in the CIFS section of the Steelhead management console. Attached is a screenshot of the config.

Regards,

Bob

Message Edited by bgilbert on 01-28-2009 04:38 PM

[Zoboflobby]

135 reads and nobody has seen this? STRANGE!

[Zoboflobby]

We are having the same problem.

The Steelhead seems to auctually SLOW DOWN the process of accessing these files as opposed to just using them without the steelhead, if we place them on a server on the other side of the Steelhead they are fine.

[whoppe]

We are experiencing performance issues running Geopak across Steelheads. In particular, the slow performance appears to be related to the .gpk file. If a local user has that file open, remote users experience slow performance. Would be interested to know if anybody else is using Geopak and Steelhead and what your experience has been.