Re: [WinMac] NT server and mac lab very slow: Why?

David A. Holter(holter[at]homer.acs.bethel.edu)
Wed, 27 Jan 1999 10:56:11 -0600 (CST)

Dwight,

I had a similar performance problem with an NT server (300MHz PII 256MB ram)
providing storage space to a lab of about 35 Macs (plus other Macs totaling
75-110 connections). The problem was a direct result of the number of folders
in the root level of the volume our students were mounting on their desktop.
The Macs scan the root folders of all mounted volumes every 30-40 seconds. I
performed a controlled test of one Mac connected to a stand alone server
(486DX33 to exagerate the performance issues) and was able to raise the cpu
activity to 85-90% by creating a large (2300) number of folders in the root
directory of the mounted volume. I created folders A through Z on our student
server, placed all of our students home folders in the appropriate folders, and
my server activity went from 100% to about 10%. Hope this helps

Dave

In message <l03102800b2d3eb83b34b@[203.69.151.71]> "The Windows-MacOS
cooperation list"
 writes:
> We just put in a new NT server in a lab of LC475s (system 7.6.1). The
> server has 256M RAM and dual 300 pentiums. We had mirrored hard drives and
> only 128M RAM.
>
> The drives were running constantly and got very hot. The NT control panel
> would take 60 sec to load. It took 4 hours to assim a mac.
>
> Microsoft said we didn't have enough memory (we upgraded to 256M). They
> also said the poor performance was because the server was too high
> performance for the old macs and that we should go back to the 48M pentium
> 75 server. ???
>
> We unmirrored the drives and things are faster now. The server is running
> OK and is very fast at the console and serving PCs, but still slower than
> the old server with the macs.
>
> Any idea why? or what I should do?
>
> Thanks,
> Dwight
>

-----------------------------------------------------------------
David A. Holter Bethel College
System Manager 3900 Bethel Dr. #2368
Academic Computing Services St. Paul, MN 55112
holter@bethel.edu (651)638-6277

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Wed Jan 27 1999 - 09:01:35 PST