Trimming LAN Manager Server Service to Tune Applications
ID: Q154075
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The information in this article applies to:
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Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
SUMMARY
When Microsoft Windows NT Server is installed, the Microsoft LAN Manager
Server service ("Server" in the list of installed network
software/services) in Control Panel Network is configured to maximize file
server performance. However, if you install Microsoft SQL Server, the
server is changed to maximize performance for network applications. With
both settings, server service will allocate a considerable amount of
memory for internal buffers and tables, depending on the amount of
physical memory installed.
However, this setting is only reasonable if the Server service is used
during normal operation. If the computer running Windows NT Server is
primarily used for application services, this memory should be used for
other components. All inter-process communication, except Named Pipes, does
not use Server service. However, all remote administration, except DHCP and
WINS, and Windows NT-based printing is currently done with remote call
procedures (RPCs) over Named Pipes. Therefore, if you are not using file
sharing and Named Pipes, except for remote administration, you can set the
server service for other options in Control Panel as described below in the
More Information section.
MORE INFORMATION
To set the memory usage of server service, open the Network tool in
Control Panel, and double-click the entry for Server. A dialog box will
show four selections:
- Minimize Memory Used
- Balance
- Maximize Throughput for File Sharing
- Maximize Throughput for Network Applications
These settings effect several internal server buffers and table allocation
sizes (number of request buffers, etc.) and rules (minimum number of
pre-allocated memory objects for new connections, and so forth). The
latter two settings have the same regulations for server service but
effect the system cache size. For additional information, please see the
following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q101041Excessive and Unnecessary Paging File Activity
If you do not have any clients connecting to server service except remote
administration, you can set it to Minimize; if there are only a few
clients you can set it to Balance.
Here is a list of application services that benefit from changing
this setting to Minimize Memory Used:
- RAS Server
- Services for Macintosh
- DHCP Server
- WINS Server
- Internet Information Server
- Domain Name Service (DNS) Server (Windows NT 4.0 only)
- Microsoft File and Print Services for NetWare (also has a memory size
setting)
- Microsoft Site Server
- Microsoft Commercial Internet Services
- Other application servers, like SAP R/3 server and Oracle SQL server
(uses Sockets) or Lotus Notes server (uses NETBIOS)
These services can also be optimized this way if the clients do not
connect to it with Named Pipes:
- Microsoft SNA Server (IPX and TCP sockets available since versions 2.1x)
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Systems Management Server
- Microsoft Exchange Server
- Microsoft Transaction Server
- Microsoft Message Queue Server
Services and functions that suffer from the customization to Minimize
Memory Used are:
- Windows NT File and Print Services for Microsoft Network Clients
- Windows NT Primary Domain Controllers
- Windows NT Backup Domain Controllers
The problems you might experience when you configure the Server
service for too little memory are intermittent connection failures (for
example, "not enough server memory to process this request"), or problems
connecting (for example, "server refused the connection").
In one instance, this setting was changed to Minimize on an R/3 server
with Oracle database; the time for the database import was reduced by 30
percent.
Keywords : kbnetwork ntnetserv NTSrv
Version : WinNT:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type :
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