su lasts about 20 seconds

[Klaus Basten]

Hi,
I have the following problem. Each "switch user" command lasts very long (about 20 sec). An ftp connect lasts as long as a su command.
Apart from that strange behaviour the server is in a good condition. We don't have any performance problems.
We use a HP-UX B11.11 U 9000/800.
Is it a well known problem?
Kind regards

Walter Blug

[Bharat Katkar]

Hi,

Looks like Name Resolutions issue.
Could you check your /etc/nsswitch.conf, /etc/hosts, server hostname and DNS configuration.

Regards,
Bharat

[RAC_1]

I would check following.
1 patches

2 Profiles of individual users. and /etc/profile to check if there is any code that delays login process. You can run su with tusc and check where it takes long time.

tusc -vfp "su - "user"

get tusc here.
http://hpux.connect.org.uk

3 Does any of these users save .sh_history file on nfs mounts?? If yes, this could take time. to isolate the problem, point .sh_history to /tmp area and check.
HISTFILE=/tmp/.sh_history_${LOGNAME}

[RAC_1]

One more important thing to check.
Name resolution. What you use /etc/hosts, dns or nis??
nslookup host_name
nslookup ip_address

Does it return ok??

[Muthukumar_5]

Check points.

1) Is there any scripts in /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile files for execution?
2) Check hostname ->ipname resolvation
3) Post what is the su version you are using.?

i) what `which su`
ii) file `which su`

hth.

[Muthukumar_5]

In your machine check this also,

# swlist -l file | grep -w su

post this information.

Other than normal thing, I am having like,

# PHCO_27781 1.0 su(1) cumulative patch
PHCO_27781.CORE-ENG-A-MAN: /usr/share/man/man1.Z/su.1
PHCO_27781.UX-CORE: /usr/bin/su

hth.

[Matti_Kurkela]

Ahh, an FTP server. If it gets a lot of connections, your /var/adm/wtmp (a binary logfile that registers login times) will grow quickly.

During login, the system walks through the wtmp file to find out your last login time. If the file is long, this will take a noticeable time.
The "su" command will do much the same actions as a login, thus it suffers from the same effect.

[Klaus Basten]

Thanks for your answers.
The problem was a uncorrect defined NIS.
Now it works fine.

Thanks indeed

Blug

[Klaus Basten]

NIS configuration was wrong.