Proliant BL20p G2 and high CPU load/queue length

[Kalle Pihelgas]

hi,

I have problem with high CPU load and queue length with Proliant BL20p G2 (2x3GHZ CPU HT, 8GB memory, 2 nic-s in teaming, MS Windows Server 2003 Ent SP2). Server is used as MS terminal server.

Problem seems to be that most interrupts are using CPU0 instead of spreading to CPU0,CPU1,CPU2,CPU3.

Data collected with performance monitor shows following:

CPU0 load: 100
CPU0 interrupts/sec: over 2000
CPU1 load: 100
CPU1 interrupts/sec: 64
CPU2 load: 100
CPU2 interrupts/sec: 64
CPU3 load: 100
CPU3 interrupts/sec: 64

CPU Queue length : 74
Total number of active terminal sessions: 60

System firmware's are all up-to date. Hp Support Pack is 7.80.

Any help and hints what to do next are welcome.

[David Claypool]

My first instinct is to disable HyperThreading, but you can get some better info on configuring and sizing by visiting http://www.hp.com/servers/activeanswers --> Business Solutions --> Server Based Computing and then looking for documents pertaining to Terminal Services including a sizing utility.

[Kalle Pihelgas]

Disabling HyperThreading did not help. Second thing i tried is i used Interrupt-Affinity Filter Tool (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252867) to set that Nic1 uses CPU2 and Nic2 users CPU3, now the interrupts/sec are balanced a bit more evenly over cpu's.

Client's are using this terminal to browse internet with Internet Explorer 6, so i guess there is big network load.