| Author |
Message |
David Compton
Guest
|
 Posted:
Wed Oct 06, 2004 7:58 pm Post subject:
Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary 'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton. |
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| Back to top |
|
 |
johnnymgarner
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:27 pm Post subject:
RE: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
Can anyone help me please. I am new at this sort of thing, so please pardon
my ignorance. I am running Windows XP. I am on AOL and want to save my
Favorites. When I clicked the "manage" tab it directed me to My Documents,
so I saved them there as a Favorite Places.PFC file. But I can't open the
file. Can anyone explain to me what I need to do? Thanks Much!
"David Compton" wrote:
| Quote: | Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary 'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
|
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|
| Back to top |
|
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David Compton
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:50 pm Post subject:
Re: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
Hi Johnny,
It seems a PFC file is a "Personal Filing Cabinet", which is specific to
AOL.
A quick Google search has brought up this page which I believe should help
you :-
http://www.attenza.com/mvu/step/1,,6+33+73+26263+10717,00.html
Failing that, try calling or emailing AOL (or another Google search).
Just a couple of tips, as you're new to all this :-
You'd get a much better response if you...
a) Post this as a new thread (not a reply to a completely unrelated thread)
b) Post it to a relevant newsgroup such as alt.aol.tricks
Good luck.
Dave.
"johnnymgarner" <johnnymgarner@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8A5BD964-75D3-4F47-8CD7-3B50E2CA6845@microsoft.com...
| Quote: | Can anyone help me please. I am new at this sort of thing, so please
pardon
my ignorance. I am running Windows XP. I am on AOL and want to save my
Favorites. When I clicked the "manage" tab it directed me to My
Documents,
so I saved them there as a Favorite Places.PFC file. But I can't open the
file. Can anyone explain to me what I need to do? Thanks Much!
"David Compton" wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file
server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so
it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing
on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary
'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running
on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same
problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
|
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| Back to top |
|
|
Pat [MSFT]
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:33 am Post subject:
Re: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
There are counters in Perfmon (see them Server:<list>) counters, that can
give you the counts on the number of clients, files open, etc. You can also
use the MMC and monitor from a per share/per file perspective how many
clients are working with them.
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:OOmMk07qEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
| Quote: | Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so
it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary
'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same
problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
David Compton
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:42 pm Post subject:
Re: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
Hi Pat,
Thanks for pointing that out, I'd tried PerfMon before but hadn't realised
the significance of the Server object.
I think that the "Context Blocks Queued/sec" counter might be the one I need
to monitor, but I can't find any detailed documentation on any of the
counters, just the explanation that really doesn't mean much when one
doesn't understand the underlying architecture.
I couldn't find any Server:<???> items in Perfmon ; are these specific to
certain versions of Windows Server ?
I don't see any way to limit the view to a specific share/file - the only
Server counter I see appears to be global.
The server network utilization averages about 2%
Context Blocks Queued/sec averages 800 (not sure if this is high or not -
CPU time averages 2%)
Average Disk Queue Length averages 0.05 (except when running large SQL
queries, but I think that's down to having the transaction log on RAID5 !)
Work Item Shortages is ZERO as is Blocking Requests Rejected.
I noticed that "Server Work Queues" has four items (plus Blocking Queue),
but only the first shows any activity ; is that normal ?
I realise there are a lot of things here that I could figure out myself, I
just need a source for reference.
If anyone can suggest some reading material or web links, that should
suffice.
Thanks again.
Dave.
"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:utzsw5BrEHA.1712@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
| Quote: | There are counters in Perfmon (see them Server:<list>) counters, that can
give you the counts on the number of clients, files open, etc. You can
also use the MMC and monitor from a per share/per file perspective how
many clients are working with them.
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:OOmMk07qEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so
it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary
'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same
problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pat [MSFT]
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:46 pm Post subject:
Re: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
Based on thiws, the disk subsystem is keeping up, as is the Server service.
The way many apps (e.g. Access, Foxpro) work with shared databases is to
lock extents. This is a very low CPU (from a Server standpoint) and disk IO
way of doing locking. The downside is that a single client can lock and
keep locked a section of the DB without there being anything you can do from
the server (e.g. a large query doing many inserts). I suspect that you may
be experiencing something like this.
For Foxpro/Access the recommendation is to disable SMB OpLocks which hurts
perf in the general case, but helps avoid lock contention for the db apps.
Your VB app may also behave better with them disabled.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296264
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:u%23hJfuHrEHA.1036@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
| Quote: | Hi Pat,
Thanks for pointing that out, I'd tried PerfMon before but hadn't realised
the significance of the Server object.
I think that the "Context Blocks Queued/sec" counter might be the one I
need to monitor, but I can't find any detailed documentation on any of the
counters, just the explanation that really doesn't mean much when one
doesn't understand the underlying architecture.
I couldn't find any Server:<???> items in Perfmon ; are these specific to
certain versions of Windows Server ?
I don't see any way to limit the view to a specific share/file - the only
Server counter I see appears to be global.
The server network utilization averages about 2%
Context Blocks Queued/sec averages 800 (not sure if this is high or not -
CPU time averages 2%)
Average Disk Queue Length averages 0.05 (except when running large SQL
queries, but I think that's down to having the transaction log on RAID5 !)
Work Item Shortages is ZERO as is Blocking Requests Rejected.
I noticed that "Server Work Queues" has four items (plus Blocking Queue),
but only the first shows any activity ; is that normal ?
I realise there are a lot of things here that I could figure out myself, I
just need a source for reference.
If anyone can suggest some reading material or web links, that should
suffice.
Thanks again.
Dave.
"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:utzsw5BrEHA.1712@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
There are counters in Perfmon (see them Server:<list>) counters, that can
give you the counts on the number of clients, files open, etc. You can
also use the MMC and monitor from a per share/per file perspective how
many clients are working with them.
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:OOmMk07qEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file
server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so
it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing
on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary
'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running
on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same
problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
David Compton
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:47 pm Post subject:
Re: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
Hi Pat,
Coincidentally I was looking at Opportunistic Locking this morning for
someone else. I wondered if it could be related to my own problems.
The binary files are read/written with the VB GET/PUT commands using UDTs to
store the records, if the OS is locking a larger 'chunk' of the file rather
than just the piece that is being accessed this could well explain the
problems.
Do you know if changing the OpLock setting would affect local data access on
the server (such as SQL) or just network access through file shares & UNC ?
My main concern is the performance of SQL which unfortunately is stuck on
the SBS'03 box (I believe it's no longer possible (license wise) to stick it
on a separate server).
I'll keep it in mind and read up on the subject.
Thanks again.
Dave.
"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:uYvr6uRrEHA.1816@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
| Quote: | Based on thiws, the disk subsystem is keeping up, as is the Server
service. The way many apps (e.g. Access, Foxpro) work with shared
databases is to lock extents. This is a very low CPU (from a Server
standpoint) and disk IO way of doing locking. The downside is that a
single client can lock and keep locked a section of the DB without there
being anything you can do from the server (e.g. a large query doing many
inserts). I suspect that you may be experiencing something like this.
For Foxpro/Access the recommendation is to disable SMB OpLocks which hurts
perf in the general case, but helps avoid lock contention for the db apps.
Your VB app may also behave better with them disabled.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296264
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:u%23hJfuHrEHA.1036@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
Hi Pat,
Thanks for pointing that out, I'd tried PerfMon before but hadn't
realised the significance of the Server object.
I think that the "Context Blocks Queued/sec" counter might be the one I
need to monitor, but I can't find any detailed documentation on any of
the counters, just the explanation that really doesn't mean much when one
doesn't understand the underlying architecture.
I couldn't find any Server:<???> items in Perfmon ; are these specific to
certain versions of Windows Server ?
I don't see any way to limit the view to a specific share/file - the only
Server counter I see appears to be global.
The server network utilization averages about 2%
Context Blocks Queued/sec averages 800 (not sure if this is high or not -
CPU time averages 2%)
Average Disk Queue Length averages 0.05 (except when running large SQL
queries, but I think that's down to having the transaction log on RAID5
!)
Work Item Shortages is ZERO as is Blocking Requests Rejected.
I noticed that "Server Work Queues" has four items (plus Blocking Queue),
but only the first shows any activity ; is that normal ?
I realise there are a lot of things here that I could figure out myself,
I just need a source for reference.
If anyone can suggest some reading material or web links, that should
suffice.
Thanks again.
Dave.
"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:utzsw5BrEHA.1712@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
There are counters in Perfmon (see them Server:<list>) counters, that
can give you the counts on the number of clients, files open, etc. You
can also use the MMC and monitor from a per share/per file perspective
how many clients are working with them.
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:OOmMk07qEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file
server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so
it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing
on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary
'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running
on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same
problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pat [MSFT]
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:08 am Post subject:
Re: Monitoring Windows File Sharing |
|
|
OpLocks are a SMB feature, so will not impact the local applications.
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:e1$hX3UrEHA.348@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
| Quote: | Hi Pat,
Coincidentally I was looking at Opportunistic Locking this morning for
someone else. I wondered if it could be related to my own problems.
The binary files are read/written with the VB GET/PUT commands using UDTs
to store the records, if the OS is locking a larger 'chunk' of the file
rather than just the piece that is being accessed this could well explain
the problems.
Do you know if changing the OpLock setting would affect local data access
on the server (such as SQL) or just network access through file shares &
UNC ?
My main concern is the performance of SQL which unfortunately is stuck on
the SBS'03 box (I believe it's no longer possible (license wise) to stick
it on a separate server).
I'll keep it in mind and read up on the subject.
Thanks again.
Dave.
"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:uYvr6uRrEHA.1816@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Based on thiws, the disk subsystem is keeping up, as is the Server
service. The way many apps (e.g. Access, Foxpro) work with shared
databases is to lock extents. This is a very low CPU (from a Server
standpoint) and disk IO way of doing locking. The downside is that a
single client can lock and keep locked a section of the DB without there
being anything you can do from the server (e.g. a large query doing many
inserts). I suspect that you may be experiencing something like this.
For Foxpro/Access the recommendation is to disable SMB OpLocks which
hurts perf in the general case, but helps avoid lock contention for the
db apps. Your VB app may also behave better with them disabled.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296264
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:u%23hJfuHrEHA.1036@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
Hi Pat,
Thanks for pointing that out, I'd tried PerfMon before but hadn't
realised the significance of the Server object.
I think that the "Context Blocks Queued/sec" counter might be the one I
need to monitor, but I can't find any detailed documentation on any of
the counters, just the explanation that really doesn't mean much when
one doesn't understand the underlying architecture.
I couldn't find any Server:<???> items in Perfmon ; are these specific
to certain versions of Windows Server ?
I don't see any way to limit the view to a specific share/file - the
only Server counter I see appears to be global.
The server network utilization averages about 2%
Context Blocks Queued/sec averages 800 (not sure if this is high or
not - CPU time averages 2%)
Average Disk Queue Length averages 0.05 (except when running large SQL
queries, but I think that's down to having the transaction log on RAID5
!)
Work Item Shortages is ZERO as is Blocking Requests Rejected.
I noticed that "Server Work Queues" has four items (plus Blocking
Queue), but only the first shows any activity ; is that normal ?
I realise there are a lot of things here that I could figure out myself,
I just need a source for reference.
If anyone can suggest some reading material or web links, that should
suffice.
Thanks again.
Dave.
"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:utzsw5BrEHA.1712@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
There are counters in Perfmon (see them Server:<list>) counters, that
can give you the counts on the number of clients, files open, etc. You
can also use the MMC and monitor from a per share/per file perspective
how many clients are working with them.
Pat
"David Compton" <dcompton-nospam-@autoclimate.com> wrote in message
news:OOmMk07qEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Hi,
Does anyone know of any software that provides stats on the 'file
server'
side of Windows Server 2003 ?
Basically I want to know how many concurrent connections there are to
individual files, any contention problems, locks, etc.
I don't know much about how Windows shares files in the first place so
it's
hard to know where to start.
I'm trying to get to the root of some performance problem we're seeing
on
our network ; we have about 40 users accessing a number of binary
'database'
files that are shared on the server.
The files are accessed using bespoke Visual Basic applications running
on
the clients. One file could be read multiple times each by multiple
computers. At times, access seems slow or be delayed, as if there are
contention problems.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be gratefully received.
NB. Our server is running SBS2003, but we also experienced the same
problem
previously when using Server 2000.
Many thanks,
Dave Compton.
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