Server 2003 slow network access

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Snowflake

#160394 28-Aug-2008 10:42

CYaBro: Hi,I think the problem is that they have a heap of data which includes xrays and some data folders have over 5,000 files & folders in them.

does the software work by shared access to files on a drive, or does it have an SQL engine of some sort behind it? if file-based have you tried moving some files into another folder and running the software against the new folder with less files in it?

as far as I know lots of files in a folder should only be a problem when browsing via explorer - usually if you use cmd line to navigate folders and list files it is fast as expected.

also i'd be interested to know if you've tested raw disk speed to see if there are any general speed issues there (what disks were in the old server? scsi, ide or sata?), and raw network speed from a couple of workstations

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AllNightNerding

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#160486 28-Aug-2008 15:36

similar to the above,

What is the Data folder?

How often are backup's run across the network?

I have a dental practice that I run there network, and they have 7 - 8gb's of data, and that runs really smoothly, with the exact backups running during lunch, and at the end of the day onto differant computers.

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CYaBro

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#160592 28-Aug-2008 23:18

The server has dual Intel Gigabit NICs in it but only one is being used.
There are no backups during the day only at night.

The main problem is when trying to access the patient x-rays and the x-ray data folder has about 5300 folders in it.
Each folder relates to a patient.
These can't be moved as the Examine Pro software organises the folder structure.
There appears to some form of SQL server running on the server but it is all part of the Exact software and there doesn't appear to be any way to manually configure it.

I don't think it is a problem with the Exact software anyway as I have had a similar problem in the past at another site where they had slow network access when trying to open a folder on the server that had over 5000 files/folders in it. They have a gigabit switch as well.
There though I was able to reorganise the folder to drop the number of folders/files and it made it a lot faster.
The only thing in common with both sites is they are both running Windows Server 2003 SP2.
I am going to try a gigabit switch at the dentist but I'm 99% sure it won't make any difference.

I did some network tests and was able to transfer a 150MB file and a 900MB file in the time that seemed normal to me.

As I said earlier the old server had 2x80GB IDE drives in RAID1 on a Promise PCI card.
The new server has 2x500GB SATAII Seagate ES drives in RAID1 on the onboard Intel controller.
I have enabled Write cache on the array but it made no difference.
The old server was a crappy PIII 1GHz CPU with 1.5GB RAM.
The new server is a quad core Xeon 2.4GHz with 2GB RAM.

The only other thing it could be is the Exact software update that I had to put on the new server at the time of transfering the data.
The update was from 9.4 to 9.7. This had to be done as that was the only install CD available.
Exact support say they have not had any other sites with similar problems though.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Regs

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Snowflake

#160596 28-Aug-2008 23:59

CYaBro:

The main problem is when trying to access the patient x-rays and the x-ray data folder has about 5300 folders in it.
Each folder relates to a patient.
These can't be moved as the Examine Pro software organises the folder structure.
There appears to some form of SQL server running on the server but it is all part of the Exact software and there doesn't appear to be any way to manually configure it.

so are the users are browsing these folders directly, using explorer, or are they browsing them from within one of the applications - exact, examine pro?

As these are containing x-rays are these stored as images? Perhaps there is a problem with thumbnails being created each time they access the folders? check this KB for some info about the desktop.ini issues with winxp and network drives: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840309

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CYaBro

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#160622 29-Aug-2008 09:11

They don't browse to the folders in an explorer window.
In Exact they go to the Charts tab which then loads up Examine Pro in the background.
On this Charts tab you can see thumbnails of the x-rays - this is fine.
You can then double-click on a thumbnail and it is opened up in Examine Pro. This is where the speed slows down.

The x-rays are stored as a .dic file which is the image format for Examine Pro and each image file is usually 2-3MB in size.

It can take up to 30 seconds for the x-ray to show up in Examine Pro where as with the old server it would only take about 5 seconds.
Once in Examine Pro viewing the x-ray you can see all the other thumbnails and can open up another x-ray so you can see two side by side. This also takes a long time.

All the workstations have SP2 so that KB you linked to doesn't apply.

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OmniouS

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#160651 29-Aug-2008 10:14

Try following the relevant steps outlined in this document. If you haven't already tried them, you should notice a performance increase: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/8/0/2800a518-7ac6-4aac-bd85-74d2c52e1ec6/tuning.doc
The whole document is relevant apart from the IIS and AD sections.

There is one error in the file server section - for some reason it is correct in the IIS section :/: The key to set for Disablelastaccess should be:

Under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\ NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate (REG_DWORD) 1.

Other than that, check that it has the latest BIOS, RAID firmware & drivers etc. The server vendor's website may offer a performance pack or fixes to server specific issues with different operating systems

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Snowflake

#160693 29-Aug-2008 11:50

CYaBro: They don't browse to the folders in an explorer window.
In Exact they go to the Charts tab which then loads up Examine Pro in the background.
On this Charts tab you can see thumbnails of the x-rays - this is fine.
You can then double-click on a thumbnail and it is opened up in Examine Pro. This is where the speed slows down.

The x-rays are stored as a .dic file which is the image format for Examine Pro and each image file is usually 2-3MB in size.

It can take up to 30 seconds for the x-ray to show up in Examine Pro where as with the old server it would only take about 5 seconds.
Once in Examine Pro viewing the x-ray you can see all the other thumbnails and can open up another x-ray so you can see two side by side. This also takes a long time.

All the workstations have SP2 so that KB you linked to doesn't apply.

the KB still applies for the setting that was introduced - just not the hotfix files. In any case that doesnt appear to be the problem you're experiencing. It looks like the perhaps "Examine Pro" software might be where the problem lies.

Can you browse the folder and open files via explorer in a different image viewer app at "normal" speeds? Google tells me that there are several free programs that can open the .dic(om) image files.

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#162661 6-Sep-2008 17:00

Well blow me down. The gigabit switch looks to have fixed the problem!
The server is the only machine on the network that has a gigabit network card though but the LevelOne 24 port Gigabit switch was cheap as chips and I got an extra 15% off on the day for a SnapperNet special :D
Been in for a week now and client said that speed has improved greatly.

Seems strange that it was working fine at 100Mbs with the old server but you get these weird problems with computers.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

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