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Q146005: Optimizing Windows NT for Performance

Article: Q146005
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): WINDOWS:2000; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 08-AUG-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional 
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server 
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server 
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SUMMARY
=======

When starting troubleshooting performance problems or when trying to optimize
Windows NT, while working with Windows NT Performance Monitor it isn't always
easy to choose from the large number of performance monitor objects and
counters.

This article helps you pick the right counters and objects.

Below you'll find performance checkpoints for the following possible
bottlenecks:

- Suspected bottleneck: memory

- Suspected bottleneck: processor

- Suspected bottleneck: physical disk

- Suspected bottleneck: network

- Suspected bottleneck: network components

MORE INFORMATION
================


Suspected Bottleneck: Memory
----------------------------

Check:

Object: Memory
Counter: Pages /sec

Object: Logical Disk (location of the PAGEFILE.SYS)
Counter: Avg. Disk sec/Transfer

If the product of these two counters (equals percentage of the disk access time
used by paging) > 10 % on a sustained basis, the system needs more memory.

Check:

Object: Memory
Counter: Pages /sec

If counter value is consistently > 5 , suspect memory.

Check:

Object: Server
Counter: Pool Nonpaged Failures

The number of times allocations from nonpaged pool have failed. Indicates that
the computer's physical memory is too small.

Check:

Object: Server
Counter: Pool Paged Failures

Pool Paged Failures indicate that either physical memory or a paging file is near
capacity.

Check:

Object: Server
Counter: Pool Nonpaged Peak

The maximum number of bytes of nonpaged pool the server has had in use at any one
point. Indicates how much physical memory the computer should have.

Suspected Bottleneck: Processor
-------------------------------

Check:

Object: Processor
Counter: %Processor Time

If this value is consistently high (> 80%) and disk and network counter values
are low, suspect the processor.

Object: System
Counter: %Processor Time (for multi processor systems)

If this value is consistently high (> 80%) and disk and network counter values
are low, suspect the processor.

Object: System
Counter: Processor Queue Length

A sustained processor queue length > 2 , generally indicates a processor
bottleneck.

Object: Processor
Counter: Interrupts/sec

A dramatic increase in this counter value without a corresponding increase in
system activity indicates a hardware problem.

Object: Processes (_Total)
Counter: %Processor Time

If more than a couple of processes are contending for the majority of the
processor time, then a faster processor or an additional processor should be
considered.

Suspected Bottleneck: Physical Disk
-----------------------------------

Check:

Object: Physical Disk
Counter: %Disk Time

If this value is consistently high and disk queue length is greater than 2,
suspect the disk.

Object: Physical Disk
Counter: Average Disk sec/Transfer

A high value (values greater than 0.3 seconds) may mean that the disk controller
is continually retrying the disk because of failures.

Object: Physical Disk
Counter: Disk Queue Length
Counter: Average Disk sec/Transfer

The Average Queue Time is the average amount of time for a disk transfer (either
reads or writes) to complete. Use the following formula to find the average disk
queue time:

  Avg. Queue Time = Disk Queue Length x Avg. Disk sec/Transfer

This information is a relative performance measurement and should be compared
with other hard disk drivers in your system. Compute the figures for all logical
disks in your system. The number of disk commands waiting in the queue is
normally the factor that slows disk performance by increasing the average disk
queue time.

Object: Physical Disk
Counter: Disk Bytes/sec

A Disk Bytes/sec count lower than 20K may indicate that an application is
accessing a disk inefficiently.

Suspected Bottleneck: Network Components
----------------------------------------

Check:

Object: Redirector
Counter: Current commands

If this number is greater than one per network adapter, the redirector may be a
bottleneck in the system for one or more of the following reasons:

- the server with which the redirector is communicating is slower than the
redirector.
- the network may be experiencing capacity problems.
- the redirector is busier than the adapter can keep up with.

If network capacity problems are identified, it may be necessary to subnet the
network in an attempt to partition network traffic.

Check:

Object: Redirector
Counter: Network Errors/sec

If any network errors are logged, check the Event Log for more details.

Check:

Object: Redirector
Counter: Reads Denieds/sec
Counter: Writes Denieds/sec

These values indicate if the remote servers are having problems with memory
allocation.

Check:

Object: Server
Counter: Work Item Shortage

An increase in Work Item Shortage should cause a change in the registry value(s)
InitialWorkItems and/or MaximumWorkItems (depending on when the outage
occurred).

Check:

Object: Server
Counter: Raw Reads Rejected/sec
Counter: Raw Writes Rejected/sec

Rejections indicates the exhaustion of RAW work items used when busy doing large
file transfers. The increase of the registry value RawWorkItems can possibly
solve this bottleneck.

Suspected Bottleneck: Network
-----------------------------

Check:

Object: Server
Counter: Bytes Total/sec

If the sum of Bytes Total/sec for all servers is roughly equal to the maximum
transfer rates of your network, you may need to segment the network.


Additional query words: prodnt 3.50 3.51

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNTWsearch kbWinNTW400 kbWinNTW400search kbWinNT351search kbWinNT350search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTW350 kbWinNTW350search kbWinNTW351search kbWinNTW351 kbwin2000AdvServ kbwin2000AdvServSearch kbwin2000Serv kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400 kbWinNTS351 kbwin2000ServSearch kbwin2000Search kbwin2000ProSearch kbwin2000Pro kbWinNTS351search kbWinAdvServSearch
Version           : WINDOWS:2000; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0

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