Performance and Memory Tuning

Although the Windows 2000 Server family of operating systems is self-tuning, there are a few settings that you might want to modify to maximize the performance of a server. To adjust the way Windows 2000 Server optimizes its memory, page file, and visual settings, use the following procedure:

1. Double-click the System icon in the Control Panel.
2. Click the Advanced tab and then click Performance Options.
3. In the Optimize Performance For section, choose the Background Services option.
4. Click Change in the Virtual Memory section to open the Virtual Memory dialog box, shown in Figure 6-14.

   

   Figure 6-14. Changing virtual memory settings.

5. Select the drive for which you want to adjust virtual memory settings.
6. Enter the Initial Size and Maximum Size for the page file and then click Set. Use the following guidelines for optimizing page file sizes:
   • Create a page file on the system (most likely C:\) partition with the initial size and maximum size set to the amount of installed physical RAM. This allows the system to create a memory dump in the event of a system crash.
   • In addition to the page file on the system partition, allocate space for the page file on the fastest drive or drives in the system. Placing it on multiple physical drives improves performance, unless the drives are slow or heavily used (avoid these). Placing page files on multiple partitions on the same drive doesn't improve performance.
   • Place the page file on the fastest drive available. You might want to avoid software or hardware-based RAID volumes, as the data redundancy might reduce performance. Instead pick a simple volume, stripe set, or mirrored volume.
   • Create a page file in its own logical partition or in a partition before any data is written to it. This minimizes page file fragmentation. Alternatively, defragment the partition before creating the page file to ensure that the page file is allocated a contiguous area on the hard drive.
   • If there is plenty of disk space available, set the initial size and maximum size to the same value. This reduces page file fragmentation because additional hard disk space doesn't have to be allocated for the page file at a later time.
   • Use the Page File Bytes counter in Performance Monitor to determine how much virtual memory is consumed under the heaviest usage conditions, and then use this amount to set the initial size, and possibly the maximum size (after increasing the number to anticipate increased future demands).

   Microsoft recommends that virtual memory be equal to 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM installed in the server. Web servers don't usually require much virtual memory, so half the physical RAM size would be sufficient, but we like to err on the too big side, say three-fourths as a minimum. Database and other application servers often need lots of virtual memory, so consider setting the virtual memory setting to twice the amount of physical RAM installed.

7. Click OK when finished, and then restart the computer.
8. Click Start, select Settings, and then choose Network And Dial-Up Connections.
9. Right-click the internal network connection and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
10. Select File And Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks and then click Properties.
11. Select the memory optimization method that the server should use, as described here and shown in Figure 6-15:
    • Minimize Memory Used The best setting for servers that service only a limited number of clients (say 10 or so) or have a limited amount of RAM (less than160 MB). This setting uses the least amount of RAM for caching.
    • Balance Uses somewhat more RAM for caching, improving file sharing speed while still leaving lots of RAM available for applications. This setting is a good choice for domain controllers.
    • Maximize Data Throughput For File Sharing This is the default setting and is appropriate for servers that mainly act as file servers. It allocates the largest amount of RAM for the system cache, maximizing file sharing performance but reducing the amount of available RAM for other programs.
    • Maximize Data Throughput For Network Applications Allocates a small amount of RAM for the system cache, making as much RAM available for server-based applications as possible while still ensuring good connectivity for clients. This setting is appropriate for servers that run network applications such as Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Exchange Server.
12. Click OK when finished.

Figure 6-15. Optimizing memory usage for File and Printer Sharing.