Maximum Open Connections and Session

Recently my organization has grown significantly in the amount of concurrent
users and data storage. We have split one file server to now two and tried
to balance out the users across both. I am finding the following:

File Server 1 typical user sessions: 350-440
File Server 1 typical open files: 1000-1400

File Server 2 typical user sessions: 300-320
File Server 2 typical open files: 400-600

This information is based on what is seen in the Computer Management->Shared
Folders->Sessions and Open Files. Both file servers have dual load-balanced
1GB NICs. Any thoughts on this amount of usage? Should we be moving to a
third file server and split it more? I have looked over some Performance
Monitor logs and haven't found anything conclusive. At this point I am
looking for something in the "best practices" area. Thanks!

- Bill


Bill Evans

You don't load balance the file servers.
You just determine which files whould be on which server
That by itself will balance the load because only certain users will need
certain files.
I'm not sure that you even need two servers,...harddrive space is going to
be the problem more than processor power or RAM. A single File Server with
a large NAS might do just fine

You can use DFS to simplify the navigation for the users with multiple File
Servers.

440+ users is not that big. That whole network could easily fit within two
/24bit (254 hosts) Networks. You could use three /24bit (254 hosts)
Networks if you wanted to have a little breathing room. I would never use
lower bit segments (over 254 hosts per segment) because of the detrimental
effects of the broadcasts.

I don't know of any best practices document. There might be one, but I
don't know of it.


--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

"Bill Evans" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7C79852E-05D8-433B-A7FC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Recently my organization has grown significantly in the amount of
> concurrent
> users and data storage. We have split one file server to now two and
> tried
> to balance out the users across both. I am finding the following:
>
> File Server 1 typical user sessions: 350-440
> File Server 1 typical open files: 1000-1400
>
> File Server 2 typical user sessions: 300-320
> File Server 2 typical open files: 400-600
>
> This information is based on what is seen in the Computer
> Management->Shared
> Folders->Sessions and Open Files. Both file servers have dual
> load-balanced
> 1GB NICs. Any thoughts on this amount of usage? Should we be moving to a
> third file server and split it more? I have looked over some Performance
> Monitor logs and haven't found anything conclusive. At this point I am
> looking for something in the "best practices" area. Thanks!
>
> - Bill

Phillip, thank you for your post. However, I am not sure you understood my
question - or I didn't articulate it well.

1. As far as load-balancing... I never said that. I said that I "balanced"
the users by splitting them up between two file severs. We have 3500 users
and 1300 stations. The users are split roughly 50/50 between both servers.

The total data storage used between both servers is over 2TB with more than
1 million individual files. We used to have one server and It couldnt handle
the disk I/O even though Dell and Microsoft said it should be able to. What
I wanted to know is are those numbers within an acceptable range for a
mid-range enterprise file server based on actual experience/live-testing or
best practice information.

I hope this is more clear now. Thanks.

- Bill

"Phillip Windell" wrote:

> You don't load balance the file servers.
> You just determine which files whould be on which server
> That by itself will balance the load because only certain users will need
> certain files.
> I'm not sure that you even need two servers,...harddrive space is going to
> be the problem more than processor power or RAM. A single File Server with
> a large NAS might do just fine
>
> You can use DFS to simplify the navigation for the users with multiple File
> Servers.
>
> 440+ users is not that big. That whole network could easily fit within two
> /24bit (254 hosts) Networks. You could use three /24bit (254 hosts)
> Networks if you wanted to have a little breathing room. I would never use
> lower bit segments (over 254 hosts per segment) because of the detrimental
> effects of the broadcasts.
>
> I don't know of any best practices document. There might be one, but I
> don't know of it.
>
>
> --
> Phillip Windell
> www.wandtv.com
>
> The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
> or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> "Bill Evans" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:7C79852E-05D8-433B-A7FC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Recently my organization has grown significantly in the amount of
> > concurrent
> > users and data storage. We have split one file server to now two and
> > tried
> > to balance out the users across both. I am finding the following:
> >
> > File Server 1 typical user sessions: 350-440
> > File Server 1 typical open files: 1000-1400
> >
> > File Server 2 typical user sessions: 300-320
> > File Server 2 typical open files: 400-600
> >
> > This information is based on what is seen in the Computer
> > Management->Shared
> > Folders->Sessions and Open Files. Both file servers have dual
> > load-balanced
> > 1GB NICs. Any thoughts on this amount of usage? Should we be moving to a
> > third file server and split it more? I have looked over some Performance
> > Monitor logs and haven't found anything conclusive. At this point I am
> > looking for something in the "best practices" area. Thanks!
> >
> > - Bill
>
>
>

Ok.

Well I don't know of any specific document for that.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

"Bill Evans" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4AFB4AE6-D10F-47A3-848A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Phillip, thank you for your post. However, I am not sure you understood
> my
> question - or I didn't articulate it well.
>
> 1. As far as load-balancing... I never said that. I said that I
> "balanced"
> the users by splitting them up between two file severs. We have 3500
> users
> and 1300 stations. The users are split roughly 50/50 between both
> servers.
>
> The total data storage used between both servers is over 2TB with more
> than
> 1 million individual files. We used to have one server and It couldnt
> handle
> the disk I/O even though Dell and Microsoft said it should be able to.
> What
> I wanted to know is are those numbers within an acceptable range for a
> mid-range enterprise file server based on actual experience/live-testing
> or
> best practice information.
>
> I hope this is more clear now. Thanks.
>
> - Bill
>
> "Phillip Windell" wrote:
>
>> You don't load balance the file servers.
>> You just determine which files whould be on which server
>> That by itself will balance the load because only certain users will need
>> certain files.
>> I'm not sure that you even need two servers,...harddrive space is going
>> to
>> be the problem more than processor power or RAM. A single File Server
>> with
>> a large NAS might do just fine
>>
>> You can use DFS to simplify the navigation for the users with multiple
>> File
>> Servers.
>>
>> 440+ users is not that big. That whole network could easily fit within
>> two
>> /24bit (254 hosts) Networks. You could use three /24bit (254 hosts)
>> Networks if you wanted to have a little breathing room. I would never
>> use
>> lower bit segments (over 254 hosts per segment) because of the
>> detrimental
>> effects of the broadcasts.
>>
>> I don't know of any best practices document. There might be one, but I
>> don't know of it.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Phillip Windell
>> www.wandtv.com
>>
>> The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or
>> Microsoft,
>> or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
>> -----------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "Bill Evans" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:7C79852E-05D8-433B-A7FC-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Recently my organization has grown significantly in the amount of
>> > concurrent
>> > users and data storage. We have split one file server to now two and
>> > tried
>> > to balance out the users across both. I am finding the following:
>> >
>> > File Server 1 typical user sessions: 350-440
>> > File Server 1 typical open files: 1000-1400
>> >
>> > File Server 2 typical user sessions: 300-320
>> > File Server 2 typical open files: 400-600
>> >
>> > This information is based on what is seen in the Computer
>> > Management->Shared
>> > Folders->Sessions and Open Files. Both file servers have dual
>> > load-balanced
>> > 1GB NICs. Any thoughts on this amount of usage? Should we be moving
>> > to a
>> > third file server and split it more? I have looked over some
>> > Performance
>> > Monitor logs and haven't found anything conclusive. At this point I am
>> > looking for something in the "best practices" area. Thanks!
>> >
>> > - Bill
>>
>>
>>