Enhancing performance on Server

[Craig White]

On Wed, 2005-01-26 at 05:59 +0000, James Marcinek wrote:
> I am trying to enhance the performance of a linux server, running FC3, for a
> small office of about 14 users. The system is provding several of the following
> services:
> 
>  Samba running as a Domain Controller
>  Samba File server
>  HylaFAX server
>  vsftp server (to support HylaFAX)
>  Postfix (to support email notices)
>  Amanda Server (running after hours backups)
> 
> The server is running a pentium IV (not sure on the speed at the moment, and has
> 1.5 Gigs of RAM, hardware based SCSI raid (PCI SCSI card) and external modem.
> 
> >From the system monitoring that I've been periodically checking, the CPU is in
> good shape as well as the RAM. However, the loggin in and off of user's is felt
> on the network. The Samba environment was just converted from a Workgroup to a
> domain. The local user profiles were copied and converted to roaming, in
> addition to changing the local home directory from the default C: location to
> their $HOME drives on the Samba Domain controller. Each domain user id was
> logged in to their respective PC, which will download a copy to the local PC to
> expedite the logon/logoff process. However it still takes time to logoff and
> save settings, etc. Some of the problems may be due to the fact the user's were
> previously saving large files (like music, etc) in their home folder. I'm sure
> this will alleviate some items.
> 
> When I use the tops command during the logon/logoff periods, I do see samba
> spiking the CPU to higher limits, though still acceptable. A lot of physical RAM
> is also used, which is one area I think could be addressed; however the paging
> space doesn't look to active...
> 
> I'm wondering if the bottleneck is in the network card. The whole network is
> 100BaseT. I haven't used a lot of network tools (mainly netstat) so I'd be
> interested to hear of some good ones. Also if there are any suggestions based
> off of past experiences.
> 
> I do have one thing that I am considering but don't know if it's practical (or
> feasible) and that is putting another network card onto the network. Now I've
> never done this but heard that the cards could be bound, or one card accepting
> packets and one would be for sending. I'd be extremely interested in hearing if
> it's possible and how it can be done. I'd also like to hear of any pros and cons
> to this or any other suggestions.
---
Indeed - makes total sense - buy 2 server grade intel cards and yank out
(or turn off in bios if motherboard) and do bonding to 1 ip address.
Make sure you use high quality cables and hopefully this is a switch you
are using to get full duplex and it would have to really help.

You might find that some redirects in roaming profiles are helpful -
i.e. - have user mailstore on server that never moves (i.e. in their
home directories) for things like Outlook PST's - Outlook is roaming
profile monster. It stuffs everything into one .pst file and if you
merely logon, start outlook, check mail and get no mail and then log
off, you will have to sync profile back. Get users to ditch Outlook and
your life will be much happier.

Craig