Slow initial connection delay for redhat server

**happydude** · 06-24-2003

CPU Rates: .3% user .5% system 0.0% nice 99.4%idle

The machine itself is a P3 1Ghz running Redhat 7.3

**jasonlambert** · 06-27-2003

Ive been thinking about the for the last couple of days, are you running these daemons inside inetd or standalone?

Inetd will start the server each time a request is made that the is assigned to handle, then unload the server once finished processing the request.

It would certainly be a possibility that this is causing the slow initial connections.

Jason

**happydude** · 06-27-2003

Hmm, possibly.
I feel dumb asking this, but how would I check?

I chose to install Apache, Anonymous FTP, Telnet, etc... when I initially installed Redhat.
If the were the case though, it should have been slow all along, not just in the past week and a half.

Last night, around 2am (est) the website, FTP logon, etc.. were running a lot faster (not back to their originally speed, but definatly faster). Yet thismorning, they are back to the slow initial connect.
I checked the running processes last night, and there is nothing new, or missing.

I appreciate you giving extra thought to the problem, it's got me

**jasonlambert** · 06-27-2003

for RH im not too sure, do you have a /etc/inetd.conf file?

if you do, you will proberly see a line in their like:
"ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd proftpd" for the ftp server if your server is proftpd, or for apache a similar line but with http at the front instead of ftp.

Jason

**happydude** · 06-27-2003

I did a bit of google searching, Redhat changes inetd.conf to xinetd.conf

In this file, I have just a few lines:

instances=60
log_type= SYSLOG authpriv
log_on_success = HOST PID
etc...

and a line including /etc/xinetd.d

This sub diretory contains wu-ftpd, telnet, talk, time, rlogin, etc...

Each of these files is the same format as xinetd.conf.

telnet for example contains:

service telnet
{
disable=no
flage=REUSE
socket_type=stream
wait=no
user=root
server=/usr/sbin/in.telnetd
log_on_failure += USERID
}

**jasonlambert** · 06-27-2003

That would indicate the telnet daemon is in xinetd, and running that way, so connections to the telnet port (23) would be slower than if this was running as a standalone server. Same for wu-ftp if "disabled=no" in that file.

You didnt mention apache/web server? so this may indicate that it is running as a standalone server, so their is no reason for this to run as slow as it appears to.

You also mentioned that it was back to almost normal speed for a short period of time? i am starting to thing along the lines of network congestion.

Install this software, and let it run for a day, then post up a link to a page with the graphs on it: http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/ if your machine has access to SNMP of any of your upstream routers, configure it to monitor those as well.

Jason

**happydude** · 06-28-2003

YEs, HTTPD (or any reference to Apache) was not in the xinetd.d directory.

Yesterday the server was running at full speed again, initial connections were instant for HTTPD, FTP, and Telnet.

I had not made any changes, it just started working.

But today, it's back to the ultra slow initial conection...

Thanks for the link, I'll run that and post the link.

I know I keep saying it, but I really do appreciate the help!

**happydude** · 07-02-2003

Just wanted to post an update on the problem.

The server is back up to full speed!

http://www.jaggedpath.com

It turns out that is was my ISP after all.
Their DNS was timing out when performing reverse lookups, so you had to wait for that time out when initially connecting to a service on the server.

It wasn't until more people in the building started to complain about the slowness on their own servers that the ISP did anything about it, but hey, it's fixed now.

Thanks to all who helped me with this!
Greatly appreciated!
If you're ever in Toronto, I'll buy you a pint

**jasonlambert** · 07-02-2003

Good news, brillient

Originally Posted by happydude

Thanks to all who helped me with this!
Greatly appreciated!
If you're ever in Toronto, I'll buy you a pint

Cheers,

Feel free to stick around these forums, its always good to have server admins around

Jason

**CopperTop** · 07-02-2003

Originally Posted by happydude

The server is back up to full speed!

Ah yes, much better now! Nice to know it wasn't something you did - but damn those ISPs, eh?

P.S. I know a couple of the guys that run a similar site for out here in the west: www.pinkbike.com

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