Slow TFTP transfers

[Geoff]

I have a TFTP server setup for use with PXE booting Thinstation clients. Originally I used tftpd32 running as a windows 2003 server on my DHCP server to do this. However the transfers were very slow. I tried fiddling with the various options (like turning on/off PXE mode and the read ahead option with little success). I then tried to use Solarwinds TFTP server, with the same result.

 

At this point I gave up and used atftpd on a linux box. Suprisingly this worked fine out of the box. So I left it for a while figuring it's a Windows issue.

 

However the box I am using for atftp isn't doing anything else and the time has come where I need to use it for something else as basically it's wasted.

 

So I tried again on Windows (this time our shiney new 2008 DHCP server) with tftp32 and solar winds tftpd where upon the same problems cropped up. However this time round I also tried WinAgents TFTP server. Suprisingly this worked out of the box just fine. However it's shareware. So I can't really justify buying it when atftpd works for free, at least on a *nix machine

 

So clearly, it's not a Windows vs Linux thing. It's something to do with how the tftp is configured. However at this point I've run out of ideas.

[OutToLunch]

Have you tried dumping the traffic enroute to/from the fine and slow TFTPDs, see if it's an odd parameter being sent that only certain servers are handling properly?

[Geoff]

That was going to be the next thing to try.

[Geeks_R_Us]

From PacketTrap Networks:

PacketTrap Networks | Download

[pete]

How big are your thinstation images? Ours are around 7-8mb for a rdp frontend. Apart from the obvious bigger = longer to send, is there a set size at which things slow down?

 

Alternatively, how well does an non-service app work, say pumpkin? KIN::pumpkin::description I use it here for dumping firmware to and from switches.

 

If you want to keep using atftp, is slinging ESXi on the server, carving off a minimal chunk of resources for a linux vm providing atftpd and using the rest for $other_use an option?