Laptops slow when accessing shared drive

[razu2444]

Hello.

 

We have a set of 30 laptops our school purchased recently. Pupils can login fine at the same time without issues. However, when more than 5 (maybe 6) try to access the shared pupil drive, it takes a very long time to even access folders let alone open any files/templates that a teacher has put on it (inside the folder). The last lesson it took the teacher 30 minutes just to open a simple file for the pupils!

 

We are using a hyper-V solution whereby the curric server is the guest (the only guest so far). I am not sure if this has anything to do with it. I also heard that windows indexing can have something to do with it i.e. when 30 laptops connect to the server and all index at the same time it grinds to a halt.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

Raz

[NB9457]

What drives are you using in the server and what config and what type of files are they accessing?

[3s-gtech]

Is there antivirus software on the server too?

[mikeprice]

HAve you checked the wifi channels - we had an access point that reset itself - and auto set the channel. The result was that it set itself to one more than the access point next nearest - caused the same symptoms

[witch]

Have you looked at the antivirus on the laptops? I got caught by a box saying "check network drive" which caused all sorts of issues and led to slow logon times and blue screens. Or maybe the server is configured to scan at this point?

[razu2444]

Thanks you for your help.

 

I don't think it is the Anti-Virus. Sophos is installed in all the sites I support and it seems to be this site that has the issue. I know that I have another site with Hyper-V which does not have this same issue. The only difference here is they run Aero Hive and the affected site has a HP wireless solution.

 

I have a feeling it has something to do with indexing services (windows search). Anyways to disable it? I had a look on the server, but the windows search service is not available to disable (I believe some sort of template I need to make).

 

Raz

[razu2444]

Hi NB9457,

 

The host server is using standard SAS drives (10K RPM). They are in RAID 5. The pupils for instance will try to open a template a teacher placed in the shared drive. They try to do this and only a handful of students can open it (say 5) and the rest just wait and wait and wait...

[Davit2005]

What is the Template file is it office document I guess.

[3s-gtech]

It's worth looking at the Process Monitor on the server to try to see where the disk activity is, or even if it's doing much at all.

 

Few things I'd note:

 

RAID 5 isn't the fastest, however we had file servers using RAID 5 on 7.2k disks for several years with no issues, with much higher use so I don't think that's the issue.

What sort of network connection does the server have? Single Hyper-V NIC? Unlikely it's being saturated, but the configuration may be a factor.

AV on-access scanning. I'd be ensuring that this is off on the server - your files will still be checked by on-access scanning on clients, but this should be offloaded.

I've never had to alter file indexing on a file server. Could be an issue, but doesn't seem likely, especially if this is happening over several days.

 

When you say 'the curric server', what do you mean exactly? Is this VM a DC/fileserver, or more?

[razu2444]

Yes the template file is the normal.dot that is used as word would use. There are no roaming profiles so when pupils login, it is a fresh profile.

 

Thanks in advanced.

[razu2444]

Thanks 3S-gtech,

 

I have also had RAID 5 on 7.2K disks in the past and no issues. However, as it is HYPER-V just wondering could it be something else.

 

The network connection is Gigabit NIC teamed with another NIC. This has never been a problem. School used to have an ICT suite and it was slightly faster. Logins and internet access seem unaffected (though I am going to test this out today fully i.e. run youtube on all 30 at the same time!)

 

Let me turn on-access off on the server. This has always been on but will give this a shot. I don't think this is it as opening 30 of the same file in one go is the slow bit.

 

The curric server is short for the Curriculum Server...sorry! This server does everything for the primary school.

 

Thanks again in advanced.

 

Razu

[razu2444]

Hello,

 

I have noticed one thing. So I go to a drive (any shared drive), I click on a driver file I downloaded a few moments ago (around 50mb). I hit on copy file. Then click on the desktop to paste. As soon as I do that I then quickly go to the "my computer" window and see that all the drives are temporarily unavailable or "greyed out" and a green bar moving across the top. This takes about 3-5 seconds. I presume whatever this is it is compounding it when 30 laptops try to copy/open a file? I have uploaded a picture...