"The network is slow"

....is the very descriptive statement Ive been hearing from some staff today

However being so broad, its hard to detirmine whether its their PC's, or slow at heavy usage periods or if there really is a problem

There is no problem with logons, they are all quick as ever, havent heard any complaints about that either
What does seem to be slow though is document access on the servers, and general profile related stuff, such as a big delay in the start menu opening (it is redirected for all users)

The only concern I do have is one of my DC's seems to be straining a bit. Not only is it a DC (1 of 2) it is the primary DNS server, DHCP server, and holds all the users data.
Its a single 2.4Ghz Xeon, with 1GB RAM, and a 254GB RAID array, which is one of the lower spec servers.

I havent set up any proper trace logs or anything yet, but looking at the real time performance counter it is as follows:

% processor time averaging at 13%, maximum 28%
Disk Queue averaging at 0.347, maximum 1.2
Pages/sec averaging at 78, maximum 427

Do they look abnormally high? Stupidly I havent got a 'perfect' sample to compare to, since I never took any before

Are there any more useful counters I should be watching?

Just want to see if the server is being stretched too much thats all

If logon times are ok and GPO etc is working fine to apply startmenu redirection, I would look at the server where the startmenu is redirected to.

Long shot this one, but do you have a CD Server or something? We have a big network hit especially if the CD Server is down as the shortcuts stry to find the source everytime they're accessed!

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Originally Posted by sidewinder

....is the very descriptive statement Ive been hearing from some staff today

However being so broad, its hard to detirmine whether its their PC's, or slow at heavy usage periods or if there really is a problem

There is no problem with logons, they are all quick as ever, havent heard any complaints about that either
What does seem to be slow though is document access on the servers, and general profile related stuff, such as a big delay in the start menu opening (it is redirected for all users)

The only concern I do have is one of my DC's seems to be straining a bit. Not only is it a DC (1 of 2) it is the primary DNS server, DHCP server, and holds all the users data.
Its a single 2.4Ghz Xeon, with 1GB RAM, and a 254GB RAID array, which is one of the lower spec servers.

I havent set up any proper trace logs or anything yet, but looking at the real time performance counter it is as follows:

% processor time averaging at 13%, maximum 28%
Disk Queue averaging at 0.347, maximum 1.2
Pages/sec averaging at 78, maximum 427

Do they look abnormally high? Stupidly I havent got a 'perfect' sample to compare to, since I never took any before

Are there any more useful counters I should be watching?

Just want to see if the server is being stretched too much thats all

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Don't worry about it. Staff here just like a moan. One week they couldn't find anything to say so they thought of the excuse "The printer in the corridor is too slow" - this particular printer has a first page out time of 3-5 seconds and a print speed of 40 ppm. (it is mono). So we didn't even bother looking into the matter.

If staff are complaining that your network is slow this means it is taking to long to log on because i have filled my profile up with rubbish. OR. I have double clicked on an icon 17 times so now all my processing power is used up, but don't worry - i am not an idiot or impatient.

Does this solve your problem??

Your DC seems powerful enough. Granted we should (and plan to) upgrade our as they (2) are only Opteron 144s with 1gb ram and sata HDDs

Have you installed any new switches? duplicate IP address?

hello fella, hope you had a good xmas.

I failed 291 this week!.

i've found the startmenu can be delayed if a link doens't exist, we for instance had a link to a random computer with a program on it, when we disconnected it the startmenu took ages to load.

aaaa.... what bits of the 291 did you struggle on?

just noticed you started this thread waaaaay back in 2006 ha :)

crimbo wasn't to bad :) managed to catch flu new year eve :o

how was your crimbo?

I find that what the teachers actually mean by the term "network" is the "Internet" of which I have no control over as our ISP keeps dropping the ball.

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Originally Posted by bossman

I find that what the teachers actually mean by the term "network" is the "Internet" of which I have no control over as our ISP keeps dropping the ball.

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dont be daft, the internet is google.

hello kev, i failed on security, got a mass of questions on WSUS and a few on ISA, isa ins't even on the syllabus!.

Grab a stake someone!

;)

Andy

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Originally Posted by MrHappy

just noticed you started this thread waaaaay back in 2006 ha :)

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This nearly caught me out too :eek: for some reason some of the forums are loading in topic order :confused:

Haha didnt expect this to suddenly appear again!
Network is running fine now. Bought 2 brand new servers soon after this thread, made them both DC's, demoted the other 2, split DNS & DHCP over the 2, and storage wise one holds staff data, the other students. Been running fine like that for over a year now :)
Seems the old one was just overloaded. It has a much more sedate life as a WSUS server now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by strawberry

hello fella, hope you had a good xmas.

I failed 291 this week!.

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If you were talking to me, I did thanks :) How are things?
Unlucky on the 291, surprised you got ISA questions! You did OK on DNS and RRAS then?