Page 1: Table Of Contents
december 2002 hp industry standard servers Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers integration note TC021201IN table of contents abstract introduction understanding the server deployment environment why use industry standard benchmark for performance analysis server subsystem components and selection guidelines disk subsystem SCSI specifications monitoring the disk subsystem in NetWare 6...
Page 2 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers processor scalability performance default installation versus optimized parameters number of threads per client conclusion appendix a: server features appendix b: NetWare 6 configuration files appendix c: NetBench test methodology appendix d: WebBench test methodology appendix e: server configuration details appendix f: test bed details references...
Page 3: Abstract
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers abstract IT (information technology) professionals and administrators are constantly under intense pressure to cut cost, protect current investments, and meet immediate performance demands without service interruption. Achieving these requirements within tight budgetary constraints is not an easy task.
Page 4: Understanding The Server Deployment Environment
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers understanding Generally speaking, a server can typically be deployed in any environment the user chooses. However, server performance varies depending on configuration, operating the server environment, and workload. deployment Typically, in a given platform, the server subsystems likely to be exercised are the environment processor, memory, network, and the disk.
Page 5: Server Subsystem Components And Selection Guidelines
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers As stated earlier, the Ziff-Davis test suites were chosen. The decision to use the Ziff-Davis Benchmark is because it is designed to mimic real-world user applications. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and personal computer (PC) magazine use the Ziff-Davis test suites in their research publications.
Page 6 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers There have been significant improvements in drive technology over the past decade. For instance, disk drive media speeds continue to increase. HP offers a wide range of drive spindle speeds in revolutions per minute (rpm). For instance, there are 10,000 and 15,000 rpm disk drives.
Page 7 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers For more information regarding HP Array controllers, visit: h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/index.html. The Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) controllers can be configured in any of the following supported RAID levels depending on the performance level and data protection desired.
Page 8: Monitoring The Disk Subsystem In Netware
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers For example, the theoretical maximum achievable throughput on a 66 MHz PCI when a 32-bit bus master bursting with a 32-bit target would be: 4 bytes per data phase x 66 million data phases per second = 264 MB / second monitoring the disk Utility tools such as Monitor, NetWare Remote Manager (NRM), and SET parameters can be used to gauge disk subsystem performance in NetWare 6.
Page 9: Tips And Tricks
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers tips and tricks Use the following tips to improve the performance of your disk subsystems: If the number of dirty buffers remains constant and the number of current disk requests remains high, the disk subsystem might be a bottleneck. Consider installing a faster disk drive and a controller.
Page 10 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers 2. Select Swap File Size in the System Memory Information window to view the swap file usage information. 3. Scroll down with the right arrow to display the Total Disk Usage in Pie chart as shown below.
Page 11 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers To monitor disk activities using the NRM tool, follow these steps: 1. Open the NRM, and then select Health Monitor listed under the Diagnose Server category to display the following screen. Note: For detailed instructions on how to invoke the NRM, refer to the NetWare Remote Manager section of this document.
Page 12: Network Subsystem
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers The network subsystem is essentially the server’s interface to other computers (i.e., LAN network subsystem clients). One of its primary functions is to move data between the network and system memory as fast as possible. The network subsystem is crucial in heavy file I/O and print applications, where the majority of the request sizes are of small record sizes.
Page 13 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers HP has many different NICs with different speeds, bandwidth, and chipsets as shown in table 6. Thus, they do have different features and varying degrees of performance and cost associated with them. For detailed information and product ordering visit: ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/networking/model-compare.pdf.
Page 14: Monitoring The Network Subsystem In Netware
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers monitoring the In NetWare 6, use the monitor, NetWare Remote Manager (NRM), and the SET NetWare utility tools to gauge the status of the network subsystem performance. These utilities network subsystem in provide clues as to whether there is a network subsystem bottleneck in your system.
Page 15: Tips And Tricks
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers Use the following tips to improve the disk subsystem performance: tips and tricks Use fast 64-bit PCI/PCI-X Direct Memory Access (DMA) NIC devices with gigabit adapters in the server, if available. Increase the maximum packet receive buffers (in increments of 10), until you have one packet receive buffer per workstation.
Page 16: Monitoring The Memory Subsystem In Netware
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers table 7. types of memory technology type description extended data out (EDO) This memory technology was first introduced early in the year 1994 as an improvement over Fast Page Mode (FPM) memory technology. The clock rate was 40 MHz with a max bandwidth of 320 MB/s.
Page 17: System Processor
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers There are several tools available under NetWare for monitoring memory performance and the general health of the server. One such tool is the NetWare Monitor, which can be started by typing “monitor” on the console or through the NRM. To monitor memory activities using the NRM tool, follow these steps: 1.
Page 18: Monitoring The System Processor In Netware
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers In-depth information of Intel processor architecture is beyond the scope of this document. Intel has recently introduced a relatively new technology called hyper-threading on their Xeon based family of processors. This technology exploits a program’s instruction and thread-level parallelism in order to maximize overall system throughput.
Page 19: Tips And Tricks
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers 2. Check the time sampling interval of the trend update, and then click on Draw Selected Graphs for a graphical display of the selected element as shown in the next figure. tips and tricks Use the following tips to improve the disk subsystem performance.
Page 20: Setup / Installation Checklist
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers concurrently on a single processor by the means of a round robin technique. An MP- enabled program has the ability of executing one thread on several processors in a system at exactly the same time. In order to enhance scalability, NetWare 6 uses per-processor run queues technique for efficiency and to improve server performance.
Page 21: Netware Performance Monitoring Tools
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers NetWare There are several NetWare monitoring tools that can be used either separately or in conjunction with each other for viewing server statistics, health, activities and adjusting performance parameters to optimize a NetWare 6 server. These tools are also an important diagnostics monitoring tools aid for trouble-shooting and eliminating performance bottlenecks within the server.
Page 22: Tips And Tricks
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers tips and tricks When using the Monitor tool, use the following tips: toggle between the General Information and Available Options windows by using the Tab key. the arrow to the left of the vertical line in the Available Options window indicates the menu can be scrolled.
Page 23 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers (continued) table 8. General Information window performance parameters menu option description current service The number of service processes (threads or task processes handlers) that are currently allocated to service client NCP requests. As the number of requests from clients increase, the server creates more service processes until the maximum allocated is reached.
Page 24 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers (continued) table 9. Available options window performance parameters menu option description file open / lock activity Displays a list of file system elements in a hierarchical file system. To locate a file, select the volume and the directories from the volume list.
Page 25: Netware Remote Manager (Version 1.7.3)
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers NetWare Remote The NRM is a versatile all-inclusive utility whose main functions can be grouped into the following activities: Manager (Version 1.7.3) monitoring the general health of the server diagnostics / trouble-shooting the server viewing performance statistics / tuning the server NetWare Remote Manager is used to display status information and statistics to help manage the server.
Page 26: Nrm Tool Utilities
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers figure 2. NetWare Remote Manager NRM tool utilities Table 10 lists the NRM tool categories, a brief description of each entry, and how each one can be used. table 10. NRM tool utilities category description diagnose server...
Page 27 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers category description diagnose server (continued) reports / log Allows you to view a Server Configuration files Report immediately and send the report via email. The report contains the following files: All - .ncf, .bat, .cfg, abend.log files and more. manage server volumes Displays a pie chart of free/used information...
Page 28 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers category description manage server (continued) view statistics Use this page to view server statistical information on: network management information kernel statistical information LSL statistical information media manager statistical information health statistics trend graph down / restart Use this page to gracefully shut down, restart, and reset the server.
Page 29 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers category description manage hardware (continued) PCI devices Use this page to view the listing of Hardware Instance Numbers (HIN) and display the PCI configuration space for each HIN listed. There is a HIN per hardware device. other resources Use this page to display information about drivers that have been registered with the...
Page 30: Vtune
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers category description NetWare usage usage Use this page to display a summary report of information all the unique users that have accessed the servers in the tree during the specified time interval.
Page 31: Introducing Netbench
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers You can download the 30-day evaluation version of the Intel client VTUNE at developer.intel.com/software/products/global/eval.htm The NetWare component (vtune.nlm) can be downloaded from Novell at developer.novell.com/support/sample/tids/topt2/topt2.htm. introducing The performance results presented in this document are based on the current version of NetBench.
Page 32: Introducing Webbench
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers Parameters that had positive effects on the overall throughput performance of the NetBench test under NetWare 6 are described in table 11. table 11. NetBench test parameters NSS Value Description CacheBalance Set what percentage of free memory NSS will use for its buffer cache [Value=85, Range = 1 –...
Page 33: Netbench Test Results
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers NetBench test There is a correlation in the way a server is setup or configured and its performance. Typically, while a newer and faster server could replace a slow one, it should be the last results effort in resolving the root cause of the performance issues.
Page 34: Performance Effects Of Client Side File Caching
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers figure 3. processor scaling (1P through 4P) on the ProLiant ML570 G2 server running NetBench NetBench 7.0.2 Test - Processor Scalability (Higher is Better) 1600 1400 1200 1000 # of Clients Results: Positive scaling was evident with the addition of the second, third, and fourth processors under this workload.
Page 35: Performance Effects Of Tfs Versus Nss
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers figure 4. performance effects on file caching NetBench 7.0.2 Test - Client Side File Caching Comparison (Higher is Better) 2,500 2,000 1,500 File Caching OFF File Caching ON 1,000 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 Number of Clients Results: Using the Novell Traditional File System (TFS) and with a workload of 60 clients, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server (shown in figure 4) provided an average 321%...
Page 36: Performance Effects Of Tuning
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers Results: With a workload of 60 clients, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server provided an average of 37% more throughput when using Novell’s Traditional File System compared to NSS. performance effects Although NetWare 6.0 is optimized out-of-the-box for file I/O applications, minor tuning of the set parameter values was found to be beneficial to NetBench results as shown in of tuning figure 6.
Page 37 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers 1. With hyper-threading, a processor’s resources (execution units, cache, etc) are shared between two logical processors. When the shared resources are busy being used by one virtual processor, they aren’t available to the other virtual processor. Code that is highly optimized to use the processor efficiently doesn’t see much improvement when hyper-threading is turned on because the shared resources are in use most of the time.
Page 38 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers Results: With a workload of 60 clients, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server configured with a single processor provided an average of 37% more throughput with hyper-threading disabled compared to when hyper-threading was enabled. figure 8.
Page 39 Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers figure 10. effects of hyper-threading on WebBench performance: quad processors Performance Effects of Hyper-Threading (HT) on WebBench Test (Higher is Better) 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 HT-ON 8,000 HT-OFF 6,000 4,000 2,000 # of Clients Results: With a workload of 60 clients, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server configured with...
Page 40: Webbench Test Results
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers WebBench test The Ziff-Davis WebBench 4.1 NetWare_simple_nsapi_wb41 was used to measure the performance of the Web server software and hardware. Each of the WebBench client results issues HTTP GET requests to the server. The server responds to the requests as fast as possible by formatting the response in a readable format before sending it to the clients.
Page 41: Default Installation Versus Optimized Parameters
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers figure 11. processor scaling (1P through 4P) on the ProLiant ML570 G2 server running WebBench WebBench 4.1 NSAPI Test - Processor Scalability (Higher is Better) 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000...
Page 42: Number Of Threads Per Client
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers figure 12. tuning compared to default installation Effects of Tuning on WebBench NSAPI Test (Higher is Better) 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 Default 8,000 Tuned 6,000 4,000 2,000 # of Clients Results: With a workload of 60 clients, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server serviced on average 361% more requests when tuned compared to the results of the out-of-the-box (default) installation.
Page 43: Conclusion
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers conclusion The ProLiant ML570 G2 server is designed with the customer in mind. The rugged and modular architecture makes it the right solution to meet the customer’s demands today and well into the future. There are usually performance bottlenecks in any given server environment.
Page 44: Appendix A: Server Features
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers appendix a: As shown in table 13, the ProLiant ML570 G2 server has the following key differentiators compared to a similar server configuration from other OEM vendors. server features table 13. ProLiant ML570 G2 server key differentiators Differentiator Description hot spare memory...
Page 45: Appendix B: Netware 6 Configuration Files
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers appendix b: Table 15 includes the changes made to the autoexec.ncf and startup.ncf files while running the NetBench and WebBench tests. NetWare 6 configuration table 15. NetWare 6 configuration file changes files filename NetBench test changes...
Page 46: Appendix C: Netbench Test Methodology
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers appendix c: The performance results presented in this section of the document are based on the current version of NetBench 7.0.2. NetBench is a licensed Ziff-Davis media benchmark program NetBench test that measures the performance of file servers as they handle network file I/O requests from methodology LAN attached clients.
Page 47: Appendix D: Webbench Test Methodology
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers appendix d: The Ziff-Davis WebBench 4.1 test (NetWare_simple_nsapi_wb41) was used to measure the performance of the Web server software and hardware. For additional information on WebBench test WebBench, visit www.webbench.com/benchmarks/webbench/webbench.asp?visitor=X. methodology The dynamic version (NetWare_simple_nsapi_wb41) was executed on sixty clients with minor modifications.
Page 48: Appendix E: Server Configuration Details
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers appendix e: Table 16 highlights the server configuration used for testing the ProLiant ML570 G2 server while running the NetBench and WebBench tests. server configuration table 16. ProLiant server configuration details Item Description system BIOS and date...
Page 49: Appendix F: Test Bed Details
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers appendix f: test Table 17 lists the details of the test bed used for testing the ProLiant ML570 G2 server while running the NetBench and WebBench tests. bed details table 17. test bed details Item Description client configuration...
Page 50: References
Novell NetWare 6 performance tuning guidelines for ProLiant servers references [1] Novell Technical Information Document, NetWare server setup checklist – TID2944438, March 5, 1999, pp. 1-4. [2] Novell Technical Information Document, Performance, Tuning and Optimization Part 1 – TID10012765, May 18, 2002, pp. 1-8. [3] Novell Technical Information Document, Performance, Tuning and Optimization –...
Page 51: Feedback
NetWare, GroupWise, Novell Storage Services, and Novell are registered trademarks, and ZENworks, NDS, and Novell Directory Services are trademarks of Novell, Inc. The information in this document is subject to change without notice. © 2002 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. 12/2002 Document Number TC021201IN...

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