I have a semi-sick NT4SP6A server. Below are some perfmon counter
observations. I am seeking input on rebuilding the server to Raid level 1 or
Mirrored disks and changing the stripe set from 16k stripes to either 32 or
64. Please note the server in question is running a D3/PICK NT database
system and the data files are in excess of 100 megs. Also note the current
raid 5 disk array cannot be Diskeeper 6 defragmented as it will 50% of the
time corrupt the data in the database files.
Physical Disk:
The page file usage on disk D of this server maintains during a
normal business hours 9-11AM 8/31/01 a small percentage of usage, while also
maintaining a high count of disk read/writes per second. In correlation The
Compaq array configuration utility on MIMSDB02 indicates the disk is set to
a stripe set size of 16K. Database servers with DB files of size 100-400 meg
are best served in RAID 5 configuration utilizing 64K stripes minimum. This
also applies in a RAID 1 configuration. Why there are no errors on MIMSDB01,
which also has the database disk set to RAID 5 Stripes 16K. IMHO it's just a
matter of time.
Memory Counters:
Write copies/second - This counter is high at times 360/sec to
2600/second, showing many successful writes to a page file with general low
usage, again indicating the DB box would be best served with a stripe set
redone higher than the current 16K, 64K or higher. Also the Pages Input/Sec
(memory requests not found in memory but in the page file on disk) counter
is jumping between 10 -1200 a second bad for what's IT geeks call disk
Thrashing. It should be much lower.
System Counters:
File control Operations/second is high also it's 280-800 @ 15 second
intervals. These are neither reads or writes to files but in essence
read/write operation/requests to the swap file/system resources/NT
Stack-thread control.
Questions: should the stripe set on the computer (via the Compaq disk array
configuration utility) be set to 32 or 64?? Will this improve performance?
Regards - Joe Bauschek
Network Engineer
Medical Information Management Systems, LLC.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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