SMB File Stats

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The SMB File Stats view Layout for Charts provides some basic file access statistics. This Layout provides this information in a Table grid visualizer component from which you can obtain the following types of data for troubleshooting file access operations:

  • The duration of file or folder access operations

  • The total bytes for each operation

  • The data transmission rate

Using the SMB File Stats Layout

With the statistics provided by this Layout, you may be able to determine whether there are bottlenecks occurring during file access operations, network latency issues, or perhaps a poorly responding server. This Layout provides the following columns of information:

  • FileName — a sortable column of data that specifies the name of the file or folder being accessed by the SMB protocol.

  • Duration — for each row of data, this column provides the time expired during file or folder access operations, in values that resolve to 7 decimal places.

  • Bytes — for each row of data, this column indicates the total number of bytes for each file or folder access operation.

  • BPS — for each row of data, this column specifies the data transmission rate in bytes-per-second. The BPS values are calculated by dividing the Bytes values by the Duration.

  • Start — for each row of data, this column provides a low-resolution timestamp that reflects when the transaction began.

  • End — for each row of data, this column provides a low-resolution timestamp that reflects when the transaction ended.

    Note

    The Duration values are extrapolated from the Start and End timestamps.

Interactive Analysis
You can also interactively drive the display of messages into the Analysis Grid viewer by double-clicking any row of data in the SMB File Stats view Layout. This results in specific messages in a standard environment for detailed analysis that includes quick access to diagnosis errors and top-level messages that encapsulate message stacks, fragments, and Operations, in addition to the data that is available from the default column Layout of the Analysis Grid viewer. However, you might also consider using other Layouts for the Analysis Grid viewer to expose different data sets related to the SMB protocol such as the File Sharing Perf SMB2/SMB and File Sharing SMB/SMB2 view Layouts. A particularly useful viewing configuration for analyzing SMB data might be to employ the viewers and Layouts that are specified in the table that follows.

Table 13. Interactive Viewing Configuration Example for SMB Data

Viewer Layout
Analysis Grid File Sharing Perf SMB2/SMB
Grouping File Sharing SMB/SMB2
Chart SMB File Stats

With this viewing configuration, you can redock the SMB File Stats view Layout for Charts next to the Analysis Grid viewer, and then select group nodes in the Grouping viewer to simultaneously drive the display of associated messages in the Analysis Grid viewer and related rows of data in the SMB File Stats view Layout. Conversely, you can also select a row of data in the SMB File Stats view Layout and automatically detect and highlight the messages associated with a particular SMB file operation in the Analysis Grid viewer. In addition, message fields and values in the Details Tool Window snap to whatever message selections are made through these interactions. In each case, you can obtain focused analysis environments for correlating different aspects of the data.

More Information
To learn more about interactively analyzing SMB data with the indicated viewing and Layout configurations, see the following topics:
Applying and Managing Analysis Grid Viewer Layouts — see the File Sharing Perf SMB2/SMB Layout in this topic.
Grouping Viewer — see the File Sharing SMB/SMB2 Layout in this topic.
Working With Message Analyzer Profiles — see the File Sharing SMB Perf Profile in the table of this topic to review a related usage scenario and brief analysis example.