>Is it the ext3 or the exports. M It's on the ext3 fs when rm'ed locally via ssh (I export some ext3 fs's over NFS and SMB). >1) What is the local storage on (controller, disks, raid, etc) HP MSA20 (scsi => sata discs) >2) Does the IO go up if you do the delete locally, remotely or both >3) What is your definition of unacceptable rate? Well, enough that the whole machine becomes slightly unresponsive. I tried ionice'ing it at -c3 but that had no effect. I will play with different schedulers and see if I can find one that matches my needs. Thanks! jlc