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If you have a volume over 400MB, you should choose the NTFS file system. NTFS partitions make more efficient use of the disk to provide better performance. For example, a FAT partition can support a maximum of 65,536 clusters. On a large partition, the cluster size can be as large as 64K. A cluster is the minimum allocation unit, so if you store a 512-byte file, you have wasted 63.5K. NTFS partitions can have up to 2**64 clusters to access the partition, so the cluster size can be much smaller and therefore waste less space.
TIP: Executive Software has a disk defragmenter called DiskKeeper, which runs as a Windows NT Service. It can defrag both your NTFS and FAT partitions.
Finding Network Bottlenecks
In the previous chapter, we discussed most of the network performance tuning options provided by the graphical interface tools such as the Control Panel applets and the hardware alternatives. However, you may want to look in Chapter 13, “Tuning The Registry,” which includes some other mechanisms for configuring the Windows NT Services. Keep in mind that altering any of the registry keys may prevent a Windows NT Service from automatically tuning itself for maximum performance. I have included another sample Performance Monitor workspace file, displayed in Figure 6.11, called Network.PMW. Network.PMW includes a chart, alert, and report view to aid you in your network diagnostics.
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Figure 6.11 Using Performance Monitor to isolate network bottlenecks.
The performance object counters included in the chart and alert views in Figure 6.11 are provided to give you a means to monitor how busy your server is and to determine basic network utilization. The object counter I consider important for determining these is summarized in Table 6.4.
| Object | Counter | Instance | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network Interface | Current Bandwidth | Per Interface | This is an estimated value of the current network utilization in bits per second. | |
| Network Segment | Network Utilization | Per Adapter | This is an estimated value of the percentage of the network bandwidth currently in use on the network segment. | |
| Server | Pool Non-paged Failures | N/A | The number of times that allocations from the non-paged memory pool have failed. | |
| Server | Pool Paged Failures | N/A | The number of times that allocations from the paged memory pool have failed. | |
| Server | Work Item Shortages | N/A | The number of times that a work item could not be allocated. This counter can indicate that the InitWorkItems and MaxWorkItems parameters for the LanMan Server service need to be increased. | |
| Server | Logons Total | N/A | This number is a total count since the computer was last rebooted of all interactive logons, remote logons, service logons, and failed logons. | |
| Server | Logons/Sec. | N/A | This number is the rate at which all interactive logons, remote logons, service logons, and failed logons are occurring. | |
| Server Work | Work Item | Per Processor | Indicates the number of failed work item Queues Shortages allocations. A number greater than 1 is an indication that the MaxWorkItem parameter should be increased. | |
| Server Work Queues | Queue Length | Per Processor | This counter indicates the current number of requests waiting in the server queue. A consistent number higher than 4 indicates that a faster processor could improve performance. | |
| Redirector | Current Commands | N/A | This number indicates the number of outstanding network requests waiting to be serviced. If this number is greater than the number of network adapters installed in the computer, a network bottleneck is present. Adding an additional network adapter may increase performance. | |
| Redirector | Network Errors/Sec. | N/A | This number indicates serious network errors have occurred. These errors are generally logged in the system event log, so you should look there for further information. If an error occurs, you should take immediate notice and attempt to resolve the situation. | |
The Network Interface Current Bandwidth counter will only be available if you install the Network Monitor Agent, and it can be used to determine if your network is overloaded. A value of 50,000,000.0000 is the 50 percent mark, which indicates that you should consider segmenting your network. Some network administrators prefer to plan for additional growth and will split the network segment at the 30 to 40 percentile mark. The Network Segment Network Utilization counter only applies if you have the TCP/IP protocol installed. This counter is in fractional percentages and, at an indication of 50 percent or higher, the network segment should be split, as well.
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