Put NetWare in Its Place
A common reason to run additional protocols in NT is because your NT workstation is in a mixed NT and NetWare network. You might configure your workstation with NT's Client Services for NetWare component or a Novell-provided NetWare redirector. If you have more than one redirector on your workstation (e.g., the default SMB redirector for Microsoft networking and a NetWare client redirector), NT needs a priority order for passing names to each redirector. To arrange this order, click Network Access Order on the Services tab of the Network applet in Control Panel (this button appears only if multiple client redirectors are present).
The Multiple Universal Naming Convention Provider (MUP) passes name-resolution requests to one network redirector, then the other, based on the order you define in the Network Access Order dialog box, which Screen 3 shows. For example, when you use a Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) name (e.g., \\BIGSERVER\APPS) to specify a server or shared resource, NT must decide which redirector to first pass the name to. Unless you manually configure which network redirector NT gives priority to, NT might give priority to your less frequently accessed network. If you use one network much more than the other network and NT gives priority to the less-used network, you'll experience delays when NT passes name-resolution requests to the first network, the request times out, and NT passes the request to the second network. This situation worsens if you use the NT and NetWare networks equally and the Network Access Order dialog box lists the NT network first. NetWare responds more quickly to name queries, whereas Microsoft name-resolution request timeouts can take as long as 13 seconds. As a result, list NetWare first on equal-use NT and NetWare networks.
In addition, the Network Access Order dialog box lets you give different redirectors priority for file and printer resource requests. You can benefit from this configuration if, for example, your company migrated its file servers to NT but all its print queues remain on a NetWare network. For more information about redirector order, see the Microsoft article "Connectivity Delay with Multiple Redirectors Installed" (http://support.microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles/q171/3/86.asp). Also, Service Pack 4 (SP4) addresses redirector order-related performance problems.
How you use the Net Use command to map resources (e.g., in logon scripts) on an NT and NetWare network affects your workstation's performance. The following example shows the Net Use command's default syntax:
net use <drive>: \\<server>\<resource>
in which drive is the letter of the local drive you're mapping, server is the NT or NetWare server, and resource is the resource or share you're mapping. However, this syntax is a Microsoft-centric form of the Net Use command. As a result, this syntax causes significant delays when you run it in the logon script of a workstation that lists the Microsoft redirector first in the Network Access Order dialog box but maps resources on both networks. In this situation, using the following alternative Net Use command format can significantly reduce the amount of time your workstation takes to map NetWare resources:
net use <drive>: <server>\<resource>:
in which drive is the letter of the local drive you're mapping, server is the NetWare server, and resource is the NetWare volume you're mapping. When you use this Net Use format, the NT redirector recognizes that you intend the request for the NetWare redirector and passes it on.
Increase Your Cache Flow
You can also improve performance by optimizing NT's system cache. NT uses the system cache for caching network I/O and file I/O. Thus, you can optimize performance by increasing the size of the system cache on workstations that perform heavy network I/O. You can easily increase an NT Server machine's system cache by clicking Properties and selecting the Maximize for File Sharing option on the Services tab of the Network applet in Control Panel. This selection modifies a Registry value and instructs NT to favor memory allocation to the cache over memory allocation to system processes. (For more information about these Registry changes, see "Set Sail for Uncharted NT Performance," September 1997.) However, if you try to use this method to increase the size of the system cache on an NT Workstation system, you discover that NT greys out the Properties option for the Server service.
To increase cache memory allocation on your workstation, change the value of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Control\SessionManager\ MemoryManagement\LargeSystemCache Registry key of type REG_DWORD from 0 to 1. Under an identical test load, use a network-benchmarking utility to benchmark your system before and after you make this Registry modification. (For more information about this process, see the sidebar "Benchmarking Utilities.") This modification might not improve and can even degrade performance. For example, in systems that don't have much free memory, increased system cache size can cause excessive disk-paging activity, which negatively affects performance.
Glide on AutoPilot
Although tweaking NT's subsystems and network configuration can yield performance benefits, this process is daunting for users who are unfamiliar with NT internals and Registry manipulation. MCSB Technology's AutoPilot P/SA (http://www.MCSD.com) is a software utility that dynamically tunes an NT environment to provide constant maximum performance. AutoPilot P/SA uses fuzzy logic and neural network algorithms to analyze all aspects of your OS and hardware. I've noticed the greatest benefit when I use AutoPilot P/SA on heavily loaded application servers. This product is a must-have for administrators or power users who want to squeeze every drop of performance from their NT systems.
Peak Your Performance
In this article, I've discussed methods you can use to help improve network performance on your NT Workstation systems. Although NT Workstation's default configuration provides good performance out of the box, you can use simple configuration changes to make noticeable improvements and optimize performance.
Corrections to this Article:
- "NT Workstation Tune-Up" contains an incorrect URL for MCSB Technology's AutoPilot P/SA. For information about the product, go to http://www.sunbelt-software.com.