Monitoring and Tuning Your Server

Analyzing the Data and Planning Upgrades

After you have collected data on the effect of adding security features to your server configuration, you can use the results to plan configuration changes. This new configuration will help you handle the additional workload required to support security features. The following approaches are recommended:

Upgrade or Add Processors Security features are often very processor-intensive. Once again, it should be noted that the SSL protocol consumes a significant amount of processor time. Because Windows 2000 security features are multithreaded, they can run simultaneously on multiple processors. Thus, adding processors improves performance significantly and prevents the processors from becoming a bottleneck.
For best results, choose processors with large (up to 2 MB) secondary (L2) cache space. When encrypting and decrypting data, the processor spends much of its time reading and writing small units of data to and from the main memory. If this data can be stored in the processor cache instead, the data can be retrieved much faster.
Add Memory If security features cause increased paging or shortages in virtual memory, adding more memory will help. The physical memory used to support the security service consumes space that could be used to cache files. To accommodate peak use, you should allow for twice as much memory as required during times of average use, while still maintaining 10 MB of available memory.
Use Custom Hardware Custom hardware can make a significant difference in the way your server handles security overhead. (Be sure to test any nonstandard hardware thoroughly, to be sure it is fully compatible with the other hardware and software you use.)

Do not, however, add disk space solely to support security features. Any increased disk activity associated with security features is likely to result from a shortage of physical memory, not from an actual need for more disk space. Security features, such as the SSL protocol, rely primarily on processors and physical memory, as opposed to disk space.