Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (NetBench)
NetBench 7.02 is an eTesting Labs workload that measures the performance of file servers as they handle network file requests from clients. NetBench gives you an overall I/O throughput score and average response time for your server and with individual scores for the client computers. You can use these scores to measure, analyze, and predict how well your server can handle file requests from clients.
To make sure of a fresh start, the data volumes should always be formatted between tests to flush and clean up the working set. For improved performance and scalability, we recommend that client data be partitioned over multiple data volumes. The networking, storage, and interrupt affinity sections contain additional tuning information that might apply to specific hardware.
Registry Tuning Parameters for Servers
The following registry tuning parameters can affect the performance of file servers:
NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\ (REG_DWORD)
The default is 0. This parameter determines whether NTFS generates a short name in the 8.3 (MS‑DOS) naming convention for long file names and for file names that contain characters from the extended character set. If the value of this entry is 0, files can have two names: the name that the user specifies and the short name that NTFS generates. If the name that the user specifies follows the 8.3 naming convention, NTFS does not generate a short name.
Changing this value does not change the contents of a file, but it avoids the short-name attribute creation for the file and also changes how NTFS displays and manages the file. For most file servers, the recommended setting is 1.
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer
\Parameters\(REG_DWORD)
The default is 0. This parameter disables the processing of write flush commands from clients. If you set the value of this entry to 1, you can improve the server performance and client latency for power-protected servers.
Registry Tuning Parameters for Client Computers
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanworkstation
\parameters\ (REG_DWORD)
Windows XP client computers only.
This parameter specifies the maximum number of files that should be left open on a share after the application has closed the file.
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanworkstation
\parameters\ (REG_DWORD)
Windows XP client computers only.
This parameter is the number of seconds that the redirector waits before it starts scavenging dormant file handles (cached file handles that are currently not used by any application).
DisableByteRangeLockingOnReadOnlyFiles
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkStation
\Parameters\ (REG_DWORD)
Windows XP client computers only.
Some distributed applications lock parts of a read-only file as synchronization across clients. Such applications require that file-handle caching and collapsing behavior be off for all read-only files. This parameter can be set if such applications will not be run on the system and collapsing behavior can be enabled on the client computer.
Performance Tuning for Network Workload (NTttcp) Tuning for NTttcp
NTttcp is a Winsock-based port of ttcp to Windows. It helps measure network driver performance and throughput on different network topologies and hardware setups. It provides the customer a multithreaded, asynchronous performance workload for measuring achievable data transfer rate on an existing network setup.
Options include the following:
A single thread should be sufficient for optimal throughput.
Multiple threads are required only for single to many clients.
Posting enough user receive buffers (by increasing the value passed to the “-a” option) reduces TCP copying.
You should not excessively post user receive buffers because the first ones that are posted would return before you have the need to use other buffers.
It is best to bind each set of threads to a processor (the second delimited parameter in the “-m” option).
Each thread creates a socket that connects (listens) on a different port.
Table 10. Example Syntax for NTttcp Sender and Receiver
Syntax
|
Details
|
Example Syntax for a Sender
NTttcps –m 1,0,10.1.2.3 –a 2
|
Single thread.
Bound to CPU 0.
Connecting to a computer that uses IP 10.1.2.3.
Posting two send overlapped buffers.
Default buffer size: 64 K.
Default number of buffers to send: 20 K.
|
Example Syntax for a Receiver
NTttcpr –m 1,0,10.1.2.3 –a 6 –fr
|
Single thread.
Bound to CPU 0.
Binding on local computer to IP 10.1.2.3.
Posting six receive overlapped buffers.
Default buffer size: 64 KB.
Default number of buffers to receive: 20 K.
Posting full-length (64 K) receive buffers.
| Network Adapter
Make sure that you enable all offloading features.
TCP/IP Window Size
For 1-GB adapters, the settings shown in Table 10 should provide you good throughput because NTttcp sets the default TCP window size to 64 K through a specific socket option (SO_RCVBUF) for the connection. This provides good performance on a low-latency network. In contrast, for high-latency networks or for 10-GB adapters, NTttcp’s default TCP window size value yields less than optimal performance. In both cases, you must adjust the TCP window size to allow for the larger bandwidth delay product. You can statically set the TCP window size to a large value by using the –rb option. This option disables TCP Window Auto-Tuning, and we recommend its use only if the user fully understands the resultant change in TCP/IP behavior. By default, the TCP window size is set at a sufficient value and adjusts only under heavy load or over high-latency links.
Windows Server 2008 supports RSS out of the box. RSS enables multiple DPCs to be scheduled and executed on concurrent processors, which improves scalability and performance for receive-intensive scenarios that have fewer networking adapters than available processors. Note that, because of hardware limitations on some adapters and to other functionality constraints, not all adapters can support concurrently processing DPCs on all processors on the server. DPCs are also not scheduled on hyperthreading processors because of an adverse effect on performance. Therefore, DPCs in RSS are scheduled only on logical and physical processors regardless of how many cores or sockets are on the server box.
Tuning for IxChariot
IxChariot is a networking workload generator from Ixia. It stresses the network to help predict networked application performance.
You can use the High_Performance_Throughput script workload of IxChariot to simulate the NTttcp workload. The tuning considerations for this workload are the same as those for NTttcp.
For more information on IxChariot, see "Resources."
Performance Tuning for Terminal Server Knowledge Worker Workload
Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server capacity planning tools include automation framework and application scripting support that enable the simulation of user interaction with a Windows Terminal Server. Be aware that the following tunings apply only for a synthetic Terminal Server knowledge worker workload and are not intended as turnings for a server that is not running this workload. This workload is built with these tools to emulate common usage pattern for knowledge workers. If an updated version of the workload is released, we will update this guide accordingly.
The Terminal Server knowledge worker workload uses Microsoft Office applications and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It operates in an isolated local network that has the following infrastructure:
Domain controller (Active Directory, Domain Name Service—DNS, and Dynamic Host Control Procedure—DHCP).
Microsoft Exchange Server for e-mail hosting.
Windows IIS Server for Web hosting.
Load Generator (a test controller) for creating a distributed workload.
A pool of Windows XP–based test systems to execute the distributed workload, with no more than 60 simulated users for each physical test system.
Windows Terminal Server (Application Server) with Microsoft Office installed.
Note: The domain controller and the load generator could be combined on one physical system without degrading performance. Similarly, the IIS Server and the Exchange Server could be combined on another computer system.
Table 11 provides guidelines for achieving the best performance on the Terminal Server workload and suggestions as to where bottlenecks might exist and how to avoid them.
Table 11. Hardware Recommendations for Terminal Server Workload
Hardware limiting factor
|
Recommendation
|
Processor usage
|
Use 64-bit processors to expand the available virtual address space.
Use multicore systems (at least two or four sockets and dual-core or quad-core 64-bit CPUs).
|
Physical disks
|
Separate the operating system files, pagefile, and user profiles (user data) to individual physical partitions.
Choose the appropriate RAID configuration. (Refer to “Choosing the RAID Level” earlier in this guide.)
If applicable, set the write-through cache policy to 50% reads versus 50% writes.
If applicable, select Enable write caching on the disk through the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) disk management snap-in (diskmgmt.msc).
If applicable, select Enable Advanced Performance through the MMC disk management snap-in (diskmgmt.msc).
|
Memory (RAM)
|
The amount of RAM and physical memory access times affect the response times for the user interactions. On NUMA-type computer systems, make sure that the hardware configuration uses the NUMA, which is changed by using system BIOS or hardware partitioning settings.
|
Network bandwidth
|
Allow enough bandwidth by using network adapters that have high bandwidths such as 1‑GB Ethernet.
| Recommended Tunings on the Server
After you have installed the operating system and added the Terminal Server role, apply the following changes:
Navigate to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced tab and set the following:
Navigate to Performance Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory and set one or more fixed-size pagefiles (Initial Size equal to Maximum Size) with a total pagefile size at least two to three times the physical RAM size to minimize paging. For servers that have hundreds of gigabytes of memory, the complete elimination of the paging file is possible. Otherwise, the paging file might be limited because of constraints in available disk space. There are no clear benefits of a paging file larger than 100 GB. Make sure that no system-managed pagefiles are in the Virtual memory on the Application Server.
Navigate to Performance Settings > Visual Effects and select the Adjust for best performance check box.
Allow for the workload automation to run by opening the MMC snap-in for Group Policies (gpedit.msc) and making the following changes by navigating to Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates:
Navigate to Control Panel > Display, and disable Screen Saver and Password protected screen saver.
Under Start Menu and Taskbar, enable Force Windows Classic Start Menu.
Navigate to Windows Components > Internet Explorer, and enable Prevent Performance of First Run Customize settings and select Go directly to home page.
Navigate to Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > System Configuration Tools tab, disable User Account Control (UAC) by selecting Disable UAC, and then reboot the system.
Allow for the workload automation to run by opening the registry and adding the ProtectedModeOffForAllZones key and set it to 1 under:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ (REG_DWORD)
Minimize the effect on CPU usage when you are running many Terminal Server sessions by opening the MMC snap-in for Group Policies (gpedit.msc) and making the following changes under Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates:
Under Start Menu and Taskbar, enable Do not keep history of recently opened documents.
Under Start Menu and Taskbar, enable Remove Balloon Tips on Start Menu items.
Under Start Menu and Taskbar, enable Remove frequent program list from Start Menu.
Minimize the effect on the memory footprint and reduce background activity by disabling certain Microsoft Win32® services. The following are examples from command-line scripts to do this:
Service name
|
Syntax to stop and disable service
|
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
|
sc config UxSms start= disabled
sc stop UxSms
|
Windows Error Reporting service
|
sc config WerSvc start= disabled
sc stop WerSvc
|
Windows Update
|
sc config wuauserv start= disabled
sc stop wuauserv
|
Consider the following changes that might minimize background traffic. Navigate to Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Server Manager and go to Resources and Support:
Consider opting out of participation in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).
Consider opting out of participation in Windows Error Reporting (WER).
Apply the following changes from the Terminal Services MMC snap-in (tsconfig.msc):
Set the maximum color depth to 24 bits per pixel (bpp).
Disable all device redirections.
Navigate to Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Terminal Services > Terminal Services Configuration and change the Client Settings from the RDP-Tcp properties as follows:
Limit the Maximum Color Depth to 24 bpps.
Disable redirection for all available devices such as Drive, Windows Printer, LPT Port, COM Port, Clipboard, Audio, Supported Plug and Play Devices, and Default to main client printer.
Monitoring and Data Collection
The following list of performance counters is considered a base set of counters when you monitor the resource usage on the Terminal Server workload. Log the performance counters to a local, raw (blg) performance counter log. It is less expensive to collect all instances (‘*’ wide character) and then extract particular instances while post-processing by using relog.exe.
\Cache\*
\IPv4\*
\LogicalDisk(*)\*
\Memory\*
\Network Interface(*)\*
\Paging File(*)\*
\PhysicalDisk(*)\*
\Print Queue(*)\*
\Process(*)\*
\Processor(*)\*
\System\*
\TCPv4\*
Note: If applicable, add the \IPv6\* and \TCPv6\* objects.
Stop unnecessary ETW loggers by running logman.exe stop –ets
. To view providers on the system, run logman.exe query –ets.
Use logman.exe to collect performance counter log data instead of using perfmon.exe, which enables logging providers and increases CPU usage.
The QIdle tool (part of Terminal Server Scaling Tools) determines whether any of the currently running scripts have failed and require an administrator to intervene. QIdle determines this by periodically checking whether any of the sessions logged on to the terminal server has been idle for longer than a specific time period. If any idle sessions exist, QIdle notifies the administrator with a beeping sound.
Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload
SAP AG has developed several standard application benchmarks. The Sales and Distribution (SD) workload represents one of the important classes of workloads that are used for benchmarking SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) installations. For more information on obtaining the benchmark kit, contact SAP.
Fine, multidimensional tuning of the operating system level, application server, database server, network, and storage is required to achieve optimal throughput and good response times as the number of concurrent SD users increases before capping out because of resource limitations.
The following are some guidelines that can benefit the two-tier setup of the SAP ERP for SD workload on Windows Server 2008.
Operating System Tunings on the Server
Navigate to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced tab and set the following:
Navigate to Performance Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory and set one or more fixed-size pagefiles (Initial Size equal to Maximum Size) with a total pagefile size equal to or larger than the physical RAM size to minimize paging. For servers that have hundreds of gigabytes of memory, the entire elimination of the pagefile is possible. Otherwise, the paging file might be limited because of space constraints of available disk space. There are no clear benefits of a pagefile larger than one GB. Make sure that no system-managed pagefiles are in the Virtual memory on the Application Server.
Navigate to Performance Settings > Visual Effects and select the Adjust for best performance check box.
Enable the Lock pages in memory user right assignment for the account that will run the SQL and SAP services.
From the Group Policy MMC snap-in (gpedit.msc), navigate to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment. In the pane, double-click Lock pages in memory and add the accounts that have credentials to run sqlservr.exe and SAP services.
Disable User Account Control.
Navigate to Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > System Configuration > Tools tab, start Disable UAC, and then reboot the system.
Tunings on the Database Server
When the database server is SQL Server® 2005, consider setting the following SQL Server configuration options with sp_configure. For detailed information on the sp_configure stored procedure, see “Setting Server Configuration Options” in "Resources."
Apply CPU core affinity for the SQL Server 2005 process: Set affinity mask and affinity I/O mask to partition SQL process on specific cores. If required, use the affinity64 mask and affinity64 I/O mask to set the affinity on more than 32 cores.
On NUMA class hardware, do the following:
To further subdivide the CPUs in a hardware NUMA node to more CPU nodes (known as Soft-NUMA), see “How to: Configure SQL Server to Use Soft NUMA” in "Resources.
To set TCP/IP connection affinity, see “How to: Map TCP/IP Ports to NUMA Nodes” in "Resources."
Set a fixed amount of memory that the SQL Server process will use. For example, set the max server memory and min server memory equal and large enough to satisfy the workload (2500 MB is a good starting value).
Change the network packet size to 8 KB for better page alignment in SQL environments.
Set the recovery interval to 32767, to offset the SQL Server checkpoints while it is running the workload.
On a two-tier ERP SAP setup, consider enabling and using only the Named Pipes protocol and disabling the rest of the available protocols from the SQL Server Configuration Manager for the local SQL connections.
Tunings on the SAP Application Server
The ratio between the number of Dialog Instances (D) versus Update (U) instances in the SAP ERP installation might vary, but usually a ratio of 1:1U or 2D:1U is a good start for the SD workload.
Use the processor affinity capabilities in the SAP’s instance profiles to partition each worker process to a subset of the available CPU cores and therefore achieve better CPU and memory locality.
Use the FLAT memory model that SAP AG released on November 23, 2006, with the SAP Note No. 1002587 “Flat Memory Model on Windows” for SAP kernel 7.00 Patch Level 87.
Monitoring and Data Collection
The following list of performance counters is considered a base set of counters when you monitor the resource usage of the Application Server while you are running the two-tier SAP ERP SD workload. Log the performance counters to a local, raw (blg) performance counter log. It is less expensive to collect all instances (‘*’ wide character) and then extract particular instances while post-processing by using relog.exe:
\Cache\*
\IPv4\*
\LogicalDisk(*)\*
\Memory\*
\Network Interface(*)\*
\Paging File(*)\*
\PhysicalDisk(*)\*
\Process(*)\*
\Processor(*)\*
\System\*
\TCPv4\*
Note: If applicable, add the \IPv6\* and \TCPv6\* objects.
Resources Web Sites
Windows Server 2008
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008
Windows Server Performance Team Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/winserverperformance/
SAP Global
http://www.sap.com/solutions/benchmark/sd.epx
Transaction Processing Performance Council
http://www.tpc.org
IxChariot
http://www.ixiacom.com/support/ixchariot/
Power Management
Configuring Windows Server 2008 Power Parameters for Increased Power Efficiency
http://blogs.technet.com/winserverperformance/archive/2008/12/04/configuring-windows-server-2008-power-parameters-for-increased-power-efficiency.aspx
Updating a Windows Server 2008 installation with Service Pack 2 does not update the default power policy
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;970720
Networking Subsystem
Scalable Networking: Eliminating the Receive Processing Bottleneck—Introducing RSS
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/D/6/5D6EAF2B-7DDF-476B-93DC-7CF0072878E6/NDIS_RSS.doc
Windows Filtering Platform
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/network/WFP.mspx
Storage Subsystem
Disk Subsystem Performance Analysis for Windows
(Parts of this document are out of date, but many of the general observations and guidelines are still accurate.)
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/subsys_perf.mspx
Web Servers
10 Tips for Writing High-Performance Web Applications
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98290
File Servers
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Microsoft Services for Network File System
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb463205.aspx
How to disable the TCP autotuning diagnostic tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967475
Microsoft Windows Dynamic Cache Service
Use this tool to manage the working set size of the Windows System File cache.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E24ADE0A-5EFE-43C8-B9C3-5D0ECB2F39AF&displaylang=en
Active Directory Servers
Active Directory Performance for 64-bit Versions of Windows Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=52e7c3bd-570a-475c-96e0-316dc821e3e7
How to configure Active Directory diagnostic event logging in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows 2000 Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314980
Virtualization Servers
A Hyper-V update is available to increase the number of logical processors and virtual machines on a Windows Server 2008 x64-based computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956710
Virtualization WMI Provider
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc136992(VS.85).aspx
Virtualization WMI Classes
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc136986(VS.85).aspx
Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload
Setting Server Configuration Options
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98291
How to: Configure SQL Server to Use Soft-NUMA
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98292
How to: Map TCP/IP Ports to NUMA Nodes
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98293
SAP with Microsoft SQL Server 2005:
Best Practices for High Availability, Maximum Performance, and Scalability
http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/9/4/d948f981-926e-40fa-a026-5bfcf076d9b9/SAP_SQL2005_Best%20Practices.doc
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