This guide describes important tuning parameters and settings that you can adjust to improve the performance and energy efficiency of the Windows Server 2012 operating system. It describes each setting and its potential effect to help you make an informed decision about its relevance to your system, workload, and performance goals.
The guide is for information technology (IT) professionals and system administrators who need to tune the performance of a server that is running Windows Server 2012.
Contents 2
Introduction 3
In This Guide 4
Choosing and Tuning Server Hardware 5
Choosing Server Hardware: Performance Considerations 5
Choosing Server Hardware: Power Considerations 8
Processor Terminology 10
Power and Performance Tuning 10
Calculating Server Energy Efficiency 10
Measuring System Energy Consumption 11
Diagnosing Energy Efficiency Issues 12
Using Power Plans in Windows Server 12
Tuning Processor Power Management Parameters 13
Performance Tuning for the Networking Subsystem 17
Choosing a Network Adapter 18
Offload Capabilities 18
Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) 18
Receive-Segment Coalescing (RSC) 21
Network Adapter Resources 22
Message-Signaled Interrupts (MSI/MSI-X) 23
Interrupt Moderation 23
Tuning the Network Adapter 24
Enabling Offload Features 24
Increasing Network Adapter Resources 25
Workload Specific Tuning 25
System Management Interrupts 26
Tuning TCP 26
Network-Related Performance Counters 27
Performance Tools for Network Workloads 29
Tuning for NTttcp 29
TCP/IP Window Size 30
Server Performance Advisor 3.0 30
Performance Tuning for the Storage Subsystem 32
Choosing Storage 32
Estimating the Amount of Data to Be Stored 33
Choosing a Storage Solution 34
Hardware Array Capabilities 36
Choosing the Right Resiliency Scheme 42
Selecting a Stripe Unit Size 48
Determining the Volume Layout 48
Choosing and Designing Storage Tiers 49
Storage Spaces 49
Storage Spaces Configuration Options 49
Deployment Elements: A New Unit of Scale 50
Storage-Related Parameters and Performance Counters 52
I/O Priorities 52
Logical Disks and Physical Disks 52
Processor Information 55
Power Protection and Advanced Performance Option 55
Block Alignment (DISKPART) 56
Solid-State Drives 57
Trim and Unmap Capabilities 58
Response Times 58
Queue Lengths 60
Performance Tuning for Web Servers 62
Selecting the Proper Hardware for Performance 62
Operating System Practices 62
Tuning IIS 8.0 62
Kernel-Mode Tunings 63
Cache Management Settings 64
Request and Connection Management Settings 65
User-Mode Settings 65
User-Mode Cache Behavior Settings 65
Compression Behavior Settings 66
Tuning the Default Document List 67
Central Binary Logging 68
Application and Site Tunings 68
Managing IIS 8.0 Modules 69
Classic ASP Settings 69
ASP.NET Concurrency Setting 70
Worker Process and Recycling Options 71
Secure Sockets Layer Tuning Parameters 71
ISAPI 72
Managed Code Tuning Guidelines 72
Other Issues that Affect IIS Performance 72
NTFS File System Setting 73
Networking Subsystem Performance Settings for IIS 73
Performance Tuning for File Servers 74
Selecting the Proper Hardware for Performance 74
Server Message Block Model 74
SMB Model Overview 74
SMB Configuration Considerations 74
Tuning Parameters for SMB File Servers 75
SMB Server Tuning Example 78
Services for NFS Model 78
Services for NFS Model Overview 78
Tuning Parameters for NFS File Servers 79
General Tuning Parameters for Client Computers 81
File Client Tuning Example 86
Performance Tuning for a File Server Workload (FSCT) 88
Registry Tuning Parameters for Servers 88
Registry Tuning Parameters for Client Computers 89
Performance Counters for SMB 3.0 90
Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (SPECsfs2008) 91
Registry-Tuning Parameters for NFS File Servers 91
Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers 92
Considerations for Read-Heavy Scenarios 92
Considerations for Write-Heavy Scenarios 93
Using Indexing to Improve Query Performance 93
Optimizing Trust Paths 93
Active Directory Performance Counters 94
Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Session Host
(Formerly Terminal Server) 95
Selecting the Proper Hardware for Performance 95
CPU Configuration 95
Processor Architecture 95
Memory Configuration 96
Disk 96
Network 97
Tuning Applications for Remote Desktop Session Host 97
Remote Desktop Session Host Tuning Parameters 98
Page file 98
Antivirus and Antispyware 98
Task Scheduler 99
Desktop Notification Icons 99
RemoteFX data compression 99
Device redirection 99
Client Experience Settings 100
Desktop Size 102
Windows System Resource Manager 102
Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Virtualization Host 103
General Considerations 103
Storage 103
Memory 103
CPU 103
Virtual GPU 104
RemoteFX GPU Processing Power 105
Performance Optimizations 108
Dynamic Memory 108
Tiered Storage 108
CSV Cache 108
Pooled Virtual Desktops 109
Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Gateway 111
Monitoring and Data Collection 113
Performance Tuning Remote Desktop Services Workload for Knowledge Workers 114
Recommended Tunings on the Server 115
Monitoring and Data Collection 117
Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers 119
Terminology 119
Hyper-V Architecture 120
Server Configuration 121
Hardware Selection 122
Server Core Installation Option 123
Dedicated Server Role 123
Guest Operating Systems 123
CPU Statistics 123
Processor Performance 124
Virtual Machine Integration Services 124
Enlightened Guests 124
Virtual Processors 125
Background Activity 125
Weights and Reserves 126
Tuning NUMA Node Preference 126
Memory Performance 126
Enlightened Guests 127
Correct Memory Sizing for Child Partitions 127
Correct Memory Sizing for Root Partition 128
Storage I/O Performance 128
Virtual Controllers 128
Virtual Disks 129
Block Size Considerations 131
Sector Size Implications 131
Block Fragmentation 133
Pass-through Disks 134
Advanced Storage Features 134
NUMA I/O 135
Offloaded Data Transfer Integration 135
Unmap Integration 136
Network I/O Performance 136
Hyper-V-specific Network Adapter 137
Install Multiple Hyper-V-specific Network Adapters on Multiprocessor virtual machines 137
Offload Hardware 137
Network Switch Topology 137
VLAN Performance 138
Dynamic VMQ 138
MAC Spoofing Guidance 140
Single Root I/O Virtualization 140
Live Migration 140
Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution 142
Operating System Tunings on the Server 142
Tunings on the Database Server 143
Tunings on SAP Application Server 144
Monitoring and Data Collection 146
Performance Tuning for OLTP Workloads 148
Server Under Test Tunings 148
SQL Server Tunings for OLTP Workloads 149
Disk Storage Tunings 151
TPC-E Database Size and Layout 152
Client Systems Tunings 152
Monitoring and Data Collection 153
Root Counters 154
Resources 156
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2012
