Windows 2008 x64 SP2 & R2 Networking Issue

Hi All,

I have a networking related issue on my windows 2008 SP2 x64 & R2 servers
here you are the details:

All the servers are DELL M605 Blade servers with 32 GB RAM and two quad core
AMD processors.

The first server is working well with windows 2008 SP2 Enterprise 32 bits
and with a broadcom 10GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The apps
are running very well accesing to a database Windows 2003 SP2 Standard 64
bits server with SQL 2008.

The second server has networking issues with windows 2008 SP2 Standard 64
bits with a broadcom 10GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The apps
are running very slow accesing to the same database server described
before.The only apps that run fine from this server is our intranet based on
MOSS 2007 SP2 with its databases on the same database server and outlook 2007.

The third server has networking issues with windows 2008 R2 Standard 64
bits with a broadcom 1GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The apps
are running very slow accesing to the same database server described before.
This server was recently installled from the scratch.

I copied a folder of 300 MB from the 3 servers to the same database server
and the transfer rate was very much better from the first server -10mb/sec-
than the others-350k/sec-.

The only difference that I note is the server flavor -W2k8 Ent 32 vs W2K8
SP2 R2 Std 64-

Any idea will be appreciated.

Best regards.

I solved the issue with an intensive search and I found the following:

Since Windows Vista MS optimizes the TCP throughput, especially for
transmission paths with a high BDP, the Next Generation TCP/IP stack supports
Receive Window Auto-Tuning and some network are not ready to such changes.
So, recently we changed the core network switch in order to scale our
bandwith to 10 gigabits. We are in contact with our hardware supplier in
order to assure us that the new device supports the "Receive Window
Auto-tuning" parameter. In the meantime we disabled the parameter in the
servers with networking issues and now the servers are working fine. The
command to perform that task is: NETSH--->INTERFACE---->TCP---> SET GLOBAL
AUTOTUNING=DISABLED.

http://blogs.msdn.com/wndp/archive/2...-on-vista.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934430/en-us

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m....cableguy.aspx

The only thing that is oddy is why the server with windows 2008 Ent 32 bits
is working well when it has enable such parameter? Is there some networking
guy that can explain that for the community benefit?

Thanks a lot to MS and its contributors for the excellent links!!!


"Ruben Mendoza" wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I have a networking related issue on my windows 2008 SP2 x64 & R2 servers
> here you are the details:
>
> All the servers are DELL M605 Blade servers with 32 GB RAM and two quad core
> AMD processors.
>
> The first server is working well with windows 2008 SP2 Enterprise 32 bits
> and with a broadcom 10GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The apps
> are running very well accesing to a database Windows 2003 SP2 Standard 64
> bits server with SQL 2008.
>
> The second server has networking issues with windows 2008 SP2 Standard 64
> bits with a broadcom 10GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The apps
> are running very slow accesing to the same database server described
> before.The only apps that run fine from this server is our intranet based on
> MOSS 2007 SP2 with its databases on the same database server and outlook 2007.
>
> The third server has networking issues with windows 2008 R2 Standard 64
> bits with a broadcom 1GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The apps
> are running very slow accesing to the same database server described before.
> This server was recently installled from the scratch.
>
> I copied a folder of 300 MB from the 3 servers to the same database server
> and the transfer rate was very much better from the first server -10mb/sec-
> than the others-350k/sec-.
>
> The only difference that I note is the server flavor -W2k8 Ent 32 vs W2K8
> SP2 R2 Std 64-
>
> Any idea will be appreciated.
>
> Best regards.
>
>

Hi Ruben,

I think this is not really an solution cause you disable all the new
networking features which is a major enhancement for R2 systems with this
command.
Did you had tried to update your NIC drivers to latest release ?
Did you had checked what NIC are offered by your NIC and checked if you can
enabled/disable them step by step ?

I see a lot of enhancements in networking are on R2 systems couldn't
understand your procedure here :-)

Regards
Ramazan

"Ruben Mendoza" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:AFD696A2-F36F-4703-B5EE-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I solved the issue with an intensive search and I found the following:
>
> Since Windows Vista MS optimizes the TCP throughput, especially for
> transmission paths with a high BDP, the Next Generation TCP/IP stack
> supports
> Receive Window Auto-Tuning and some network are not ready to such changes.
> So, recently we changed the core network switch in order to scale our
> bandwith to 10 gigabits. We are in contact with our hardware supplier in
> order to assure us that the new device supports the "Receive Window
> Auto-tuning" parameter. In the meantime we disabled the parameter in the
> servers with networking issues and now the servers are working fine. The
> command to perform that task is: NETSH--->INTERFACE---->TCP---> SET GLOBAL
> AUTOTUNING=DISABLED.
>
> http://blogs.msdn.com/wndp/archive/2...-on-vista.aspx
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934430/en-us
>
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m....cableguy.aspx
>
> The only thing that is oddy is why the server with windows 2008 Ent 32
> bits
> is working well when it has enable such parameter? Is there some
> networking
> guy that can explain that for the community benefit?
>
> Thanks a lot to MS and its contributors for the excellent links!!!
>
>
> "Ruben Mendoza" wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I have a networking related issue on my windows 2008 SP2 x64 & R2 servers
>> here you are the details:
>>
>> All the servers are DELL M605 Blade servers with 32 GB RAM and two quad
>> core
>> AMD processors.
>>
>> The first server is working well with windows 2008 SP2 Enterprise 32 bits
>> and with a broadcom 10GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The
>> apps
>> are running very well accesing to a database Windows 2003 SP2 Standard
>> 64
>> bits server with SQL 2008.
>>
>> The second server has networking issues with windows 2008 SP2 Standard
>> 64
>> bits with a broadcom 10GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The
>> apps
>> are running very slow accesing to the same database server described
>> before.The only apps that run fine from this server is our intranet based
>> on
>> MOSS 2007 SP2 with its databases on the same database server and outlook
>> 2007.
>>
>> The third server has networking issues with windows 2008 R2 Standard 64
>> bits with a broadcom 1GbE nic updated to the last driver version. The
>> apps
>> are running very slow accesing to the same database server described
>> before.
>> This server was recently installled from the scratch.
>>
>> I copied a folder of 300 MB from the 3 servers to the same database
>> server
>> and the transfer rate was very much better from the first
>> server -10mb/sec-
>> than the others-350k/sec-.
>>
>> The only difference that I note is the server flavor -W2k8 Ent 32 vs W2K8
>> SP2 R2 Std 64-
>>
>> Any idea will be appreciated.
>>
>> Best regards.
>>
>>

The solution you've found really resolves your errors but soon you will run into new errors. I would suggest to update your drivers and if it still doesn't works do a system restore and stay with the current configuration until you run into new errors.