Speed concerns

How many times has this question been asked?

I have a Windows 2003 server that acts as the PDC, DNS server and is
running Exchange for a small network of about 15 nodes. It is also used for
file serving. Server has gigabit to the switch and clients are all
100BaseT. Users have been complaining for some time about performance. One
application in particular is a problem. The application is installed to
client machines (so the local workstation handles the processor activity),
but the data files are stored on the server and the clients have that folder
mapped. The application is a bookeeping app., and frequently the users print
reports that are number intensive, if the data file is large. If the data is
on the local client HDs, then the speed is great, but when the data is on
the server, the tasks bog down, probably taking about 4 times as long.

I've watched performance monitor on the server, CPU, RAM and disk activity
are all nominal. Network activity spikes during heavy usage, but is not
steadily excessive. I've watched the network for any excessive chatter, but
haven't seen anything. Performance is still bad even with one machine on
network.

Server has a 2Ghz Zeon processor, 1.5 GB RAM and 3 UltraSCSI drives in RAID
5 config and Gigabit Ethernet, Windows 2003 OS. Clients are all Pentium 4
machines, Windows XP, 100BaseT and at least 512 MB RAM. I realize that
network is going to be slower than local HD, but should it be this much
slower?

Thanks in advance.

First, you should run a few tests for large files in both directions and
clock the transfer speeds you are getting on the LAN between workstation
and server. If this also is much slower than it should be you should check out
the various articles on the Microsoft KB that relate to this.

But your problem is likely related to higher-level databse protocols and their
interaction with your LAN communication. You can try a couple of things and
see if they help. (Keep a record of what you changed and change
these settings back if they make no difference

Create or set the following values in the registry on the server, under the
registry key:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServe r\Parameters

EnableOpLockForceClose REG_DWORD = 1
EnableOplocks REG_DWORD = 0
CachedOpenLimit REG_DWORD = 1

This disables some Windows file system optimizations that can interact
negatively with database applications run over a network. (The server optimizations
that are disabled won't be noticed.)

Second, I'd try running file sharing services over IPX instead of TCP/IP. (You do
this in the "advanced" network settings where you can remove bindings
between services and protocols.) TCP/IP has a couple of features that help
it deal with slow, noisy WANs -- but these same features can sometimes slow it
down with certain LAN applications. In these cases protocols like IPX or
even NetBEUI (the latter not an option with XP) can sometimes turn out to be
much more efficient.

Finally, you should check with the vendor and see if there are any database
locking or caching timeout parameters you can configure.

It also needs to be said that any database application will run considerably slower
over a LAN than it will locally, even a 'client-server' database on a 'fast' network.
As an example of this, I recently changed a medical office app running on its own
server from using a locally-mapped share to a SUBST and saw the performance
increase 5-fold -- when run on that server. (It of course did absolutely
nothing for the other, networked users.) You have to be your own judge of
what is "reasonable" in this context.

Steve Duff, MCSE, MVP
Ergodic Systems, Inc.

"Jeremy Salda" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:u%(E-Mail Removed)...
> How many times has this question been asked?
>
> I have a Windows 2003 server that acts as the PDC, DNS server and is
> running Exchange for a small network of about 15 nodes. It is also used for
> file serving. Server has gigabit to the switch and clients are all
> 100BaseT. Users have been complaining for some time about performance. One
> application in particular is a problem. The application is installed to
> client machines (so the local workstation handles the processor activity),
> but the data files are stored on the server and the clients have that folder
> mapped. The application is a bookeeping app., and frequently the users print
> reports that are number intensive, if the data file is large. If the data is
> on the local client HDs, then the speed is great, but when the data is on
> the server, the tasks bog down, probably taking about 4 times as long.
>
> I've watched performance monitor on the server, CPU, RAM and disk activity
> are all nominal. Network activity spikes during heavy usage, but is not
> steadily excessive. I've watched the network for any excessive chatter, but
> haven't seen anything. Performance is still bad even with one machine on
> network.
>
> Server has a 2Ghz Zeon processor, 1.5 GB RAM and 3 UltraSCSI drives in RAID
> 5 config and Gigabit Ethernet, Windows 2003 OS. Clients are all Pentium 4
> machines, Windows XP, 100BaseT and at least 512 MB RAM. I realize that
> network is going to be slower than local HD, but should it be this much
> slower?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>