Tuning Network Servers

After your Windows 2000 member servers are on the network, some of them might need performance tuning. Even the most carefully planned server upgrade might not be able to eliminate all of the possible problems that can occur, such as bottlenecks. If system problems occur, they can be found by using counters in the Windows 2000 Server System Monitor snap-in within the Performance tool. You can collect data by monitoring processor, disk, and network activity. The data might reveal that bottlenecks caused by demands on certain resources indicate a need for tuning.

Bottlenecks can be caused by:

• Insufficient resources such as processors, memory, or hard disks.

  You can address this by inventorying the network hardware and determining which servers need upgraded hardware.

• Unbalanced workloads that put uneven loads on servers.

  To solve these problems, Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Advanced Server provides Network Load Balancing to ensure that the workload is distributed evenly across resources. For more information about Network Load Balancing and Microsoft Advanced Server, see "Ensuring the Availability of Applications and Services" in this book.

When tuning your network servers, keep the following recommendations in mind:

• Make only one change at a time, because a problem that appears to be a single resource setting or component might actually involve more than one. Also, it is easier to redo changes to a single setting or component than to multiple settings, and changing too many settings at one time might actually make your situation worse. Keep a record of the changes and the impact those changes have on the system.
• Repeat your monitoring after every change you make to assess whether the change had a positive impact on the server.
• Check the Event Log viewer in Administrative Tools for any event logs that are generated due to performance problems.

© 1985-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.