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Q199160: Performance Tuning Wins and DHCP

Article: Q199160
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): 2000,4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 11-JUN-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server 
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server 
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server 
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IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SUMMARY
=======

The Microsoft Windows NT Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) and Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services are usually limited in performance by the
disk subsystems that hold their databases. This article discusses how to improve
the performance of these services.

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

The Microsoft WINS and DHCP service use the Microsoft Jet database engine. The
Jet database engine is a high performance system that provides reliable
transaction processing by confirming to WINS or DHCP that it has positively
written data to disk. This requires a mechanical operation to be performed and
confirmed for each database operation. If the database is flooded with
transactions, the performance of the service will be blocked while waiting for
the confirmation of disk writes. Therefore, highest performances can only be
achieved using a high performance hard disk subsystem.

When selecting a disk subsystem, these general rules should be followed:

- SCSI is preferable to IDE.

- Fast wide SCSI is preferable to narrow/standard SCSI.

- RAID level 5 is preferable to a single disk.

- A hardware-based RAID controller is preferable to software RAID.

- More spindles are preferred over fewer spindles, to distribute writes.

- A caching disk controller is preferable to a noncaching controller, but a
  caching controller must have a battery backup to ensure data integrity.

In all cases, Microsoft recommends consulting the Windows NT Hardware
Compatibility List (HCL) for computers and subsystems that are certified to run
with Windows NT.

It is important to stress that a caching controller must have a battery backup,
because not having one creates the possibility that a controller will confirm to
the file system that it has successfully written to disk without the write being
performed. If there is a loss of power or other catastrophic failure, the
transaction may be lost. Caching controllers with battery backup will commit
cached transaction to disk when the disk subsystem is restarted, allowing the
database to be consistent with transactions that have been confirmed.

Another optimization that is available to WINS, but currently not to DHCP, is the
manual configuration of a log file path. As a performance optimization, the Jet
database engine quickly writes transaction log files to disk that are then later
written (committed) to the main database file when time permits. By configuring
the log file path to a different disk subsystem than the main database file,
further optimization can be achieved.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems
that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot
guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor
incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

The logfile path is configured in the Windows NT registry under the following
key:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Wins 
  \Parameters\LogFilePath

  Data Type: REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ
  Range: Directory
  Default: %SystemRoot%\System32\WINS

This key should only be configured if the specified log file path points to a
directory on a high performance subsystem, as writing to log files is usually
the bottleneck in Wins server performance.

REFERENCES
==========

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q188027 Performance, Audit Logging, and Fixes to the DHCP Service

  Q184693 DNS/DHCP/WINS Release Notes for Windows NT 4.0 SP4 Update

Additional query words:

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbwin2000AdvServ kbwin2000DataServ kbwin2000Serv kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS400search kbwin2000ServSearch kbWinAdvServSearch kbWinDataServSearch kbWinNT400search kbwin2000AdvServSearch kbwin2000DataServSearch kbWinNTS400 kbwin2000Search
Version           : :2000,4.0
Issue type        : kbinfo

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