In tip 186 we learned how to insure that the Server Service was self tuning.
When tuning the Server Service in Control Panel / Network /Services / Server / Properties, you can choose among:
- Minimize Memory Used
- Balance
- Maximize Throughput for File Sharing
- Maximize Throughput for Network Applications
If you do not use the Server Service for file and print sharing, or only by a few clients, set it to Minimize Memory Used or Balance. If you have too little memory allocated, you may experience not enough server memory/storage to process this request, server refused connection, or similar messages.
If you have Maximize Throughput for Network Applications enabled, the following applications will benefit:
- RAS Server
- Services for Macintosh
- DHCP Server
- WINS Server
- Internet Information Server
- DNS Server (Windows NT 4.0 only)
- Microsoft File and Print Services for NetWare (also has a
memory size setting)
- Microsoft Directory Service Manager for NetWare
- Microsoft Site Server
- Other application servers, like SAP R/3 server and Oracle SQL
server (uses Sockets) or Lotus Notes server (uses NETBIOS)
The following applications will also benefit if clients do not connect using Named Pipes:
- Microsoft SNA Server (IPX and TCP sockets available in
versions 2.1x)
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Systems Management Server
- Microsoft Exchange Server
- Microsoft Transaction Server
- Microsoft Message Que Server
The following will suffer if Maximize Throughput for Network Applications is enabled:
- Windows NT File and Print Services for Microsoft Network
Clients
- Windows NT Primary Domain Controllers
- Windows NT Backup Domain Controllers in Resource Domains
Lastly, if you are experiencing excess (and seemingly unnecessary) Pagefile activity, you may want to experiment with editing the registry at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
and setting LargeSystemCache (type REG_DWORD) to zero. An entry of zero favors the process working set and a non-zero entry favors the system cache.
