This guide describes important tuning parameters and settings that can result in improved performance for the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. Each setting and its potential effect are described to help you make an informed judgment about its relevance to your system, workload, and performance goals.
This information applies to the Windows Server 2008 operating system.
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References and resources discussed here are listed at the end of this guide.
Introduction 4
In This Guide 4
Performance Tuning for Server Hardware 4
Power Guidelines 7
Changes to Default Power Policy Parameters in Service Pack 2 8
Interrupt Affinity 9
Performance Tuning for the Networking Subsystem 9
Choosing a Network Adapter 10
Offload Capabilities 10
Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) 11
Message-Signaled Interrupts (MSI/MSI-X) 11
Network Adapter Resources 11
Interrupt Moderation 11
Suggested Network Adapter Features for Server Roles 11
Tuning the Network Adapter 12
Enabling Offload Features 12
Increasing Network Adapter Resources 12
Enabling Interrupt Moderation 13
Binding Each Adapter to a CPU 13
TCP Receive Window Auto-Tuning 13
TCP Parameters 14
Network-Related Performance Counters 14
Performance Tuning for the Storage Subsystem 15
Choosing Storage 16
Estimating the Amount of Data to Be Stored 16
Choosing a Storage Array 17
Hardware RAID Levels 18
Choosing the RAID Level 21
Selecting a Stripe Unit Size 25
Determining the Volume Layout 26
Storage-Related Parameters 26
NumberOfRequests 26
I/O Priorities 27
Storage-Related Performance Counters 27
Logical Disk and Physical Disk 27
Processor 29
Power Protection and Advanced Performance Option 29
Block Alignment (DISKPART) 30
Solid-State and Hybrid Drives 30
Response Times 31
Queue Lengths 32
Performance Tuning for Web Servers 33
Selecting the Proper Hardware for Performance 33
Operating System Practices 33
Tuning IIS 7.0 33
Kernel-Mode Tunings 35
Cache Management Settings 35
Request and Connection Management Settings 36
User-Mode Settings 37
User-Mode Cache Behavior Settings 37
Compression Behavior Settings 37
Tuning the Default Document List 38
Central Binary Logging 39
Application and Site Tunings 40
Managing IIS 7.0 Modules 40
Classic ASP Settings 41
ASP.NET Concurrency Setting 42
Worker Process and Recycling Options 42
Secure Sockets Layer Tuning Parameters 43
ISAPI 43
Managed Code Tuning Guidelines 43
Other Issues that Affect IIS Performance 44
NTFS File System Setting 44
Networking Subsystem Performance Settings for IIS 44
Performance Tuning for File Servers 44
Selecting the Proper Hardware for Performance 44
Server Message Block Model 45
Configuration Considerations 45
General Tuning Parameters for File Servers 46
General Tuning Parameters for Client Computers 47
Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers 48
Considerations for Read-Heavy Scenarios 49
Considerations for Write-Heavy Scenarios 50
Using Indexing to Increase Query Performance 50
Optimizing Trust Paths 50
Active Directory Performance Counters 50
Performance Tuning for Terminal Server 52
Selecting the Proper Hardware for Performance 52
CPU Configuration 52
Processor Architecture 52
Memory Configuration 53
Disk 53
Network 54
Tuning Applications for Terminal Server 54
Terminal Server Tuning Parameters 55
Pagefile 55
Antivirus and Antispyware 55
Task Scheduler 55
Desktop Notification Icons 56
Client Experience Settings 57
Desktop Size 58
Windows System Resource Manager 58
Performance Tuning for Terminal Server Gateway 58
Monitoring and Data Collection 59
Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers 59
Terminology 60
Hyper-V Architecture 61
Server Configuration 62
Hardware Selection 62
Server Core Installation Option 63
Dedicated Server Role 63
Guest Operating Systems 63
CPU Statistics 64
Processor Performance 64
Integration Services 64
Enlightened Guests 64
Virtual Processors 64
Background Activity 65
Weights and Reserves 65
Tuning NUMA Node Preference 65
Memory Performance 66
Enlightened Guests 66
Correct Memory Sizing 66
Storage I/O Performance 66
Synthetic SCSI Controller 67
Virtual Hard Disk Types 67
Passthrough Disks 68
Disabling File Last Access Time Check 68
Physical Disk Topology 68
I/O Balancer Controls 69
Network I/O Performance 69
Synthetic Network Adapter 70
Multiple Synthetic Network Adapters on Multiprocessor VMs 70
Offload Hardware 70
Network Switch Topology 70
Interrupt Affinity 70
VLAN Performance 70
Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (NetBench) 71
Registry Tuning Parameters for Servers 71
Registry Tuning Parameters for Client Computers 71
Performance Tuning for Network Workload (NTttcp) 72
Tuning for NTttcp 72
Network Adapter 73
TCP/IP Window Size 73
Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) 73
Tuning for IxChariot 73
Performance Tuning for Terminal Server Knowledge Worker Workload 74
Recommended Tunings on the Server 75
Monitoring and Data Collection 77
Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload 77
Operating System Tunings on the Server 78
Tunings on the Database Server 78
Tunings on the SAP Application Server 79
Monitoring and Data Collection 79
Resources 79