topic Re: Delay server 2003 sp1, browsing files on server local in Windows Server 2003

Delay server 2003 sp1, browsing files on server local

MTC — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:21:48 GMT

Hi All,

I ocassionally experience a 30sec to 1min delay when exploring files on a DL380G4 running server 2003 sp1, fully patched both MS & HP (drivers, bios etc). The server has a Smart Array 641.

You will double click a folder and it will just sit there with a delay. This is very random does not always happen.

Has anyone ever experienced this before?

Thanks kindly.

Re: Delay server 2003 sp1, browsing files on server local

MTC — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:56:02 GMT

sorry typo, the server has smart array 6i, no bbwc.

the 641 are in my ml350g3's.

Re: Delay server 2003 sp1, browsing files on server local

Rune J. Winje — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:09:42 GMT

Which client are you browsing from?

Couple of docs to look into:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832161/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822219/en-us

Several other docs exist regarding various problems with slow browsing of network shares from WinXP or other clients.

Event logs on server and client plus a network trace from the shortest possible period showing the problem (no prices given for long network traces...) may illuminate the problem further.

Also you may begin with a perfmon trace for disk queue lenghts to eliminate that the problem is caused by slow disk access (check both read and write disk queue lenghts).

Cheers,
Rune

Re: Delay server 2003 sp1, browsing files on server local

Alan_152 — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:58:05 GMT

What is task manager reporting when this happens? Since this is a server, it may currently be set up to give priority to non-local connections.

Re: Delay server 2003 sp1, browsing files on server local

WillNiccolls — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 12:42:24 GMT

I understand there can be some performance problems if a directory structure is highly fragmented. I recall reading that certain copy operations may copy all directory information without file name information, and for large amounts of files and folders in a deep hierchy, this might impact performance because the file and directory names aren't read as quickly.

However, this would impact performance for both network access and local access, so perhaps the problem is different.

If you can show that the delays also happen for network access, there utility in the Windows Resource Kit Tools called "robocopy.exe" has a switch that copies directories with null entries for each file name as it builds the directory structure, so that the directory structure doesn't become highly fragmented and gives lower read times.