Load Ballancing Advice Needed

[technobia]

We have two servers one of them (Server 2) is problematic. The two main issues with it is
1. It takes about 30 minutes to fully reboot
2. It take a very long time 2-5 minutes for clients to login.

We need to make these servers perform better until we can afford to get better and more hardware/software. I have some thoughts about load balancing and would appreciate some advice.

CURRENT CONFIGURATION: Currently there are 15 users. Will be 20 next year.

SERVER 1 – Windows 2003 R2 Standard Edition

• Intel S3200AH Motherboard w/ Xeon Processor
• 2gb RAM
• 2 Windows 250 GB Mirror Sets C: Boot & D: Data (Previously used LSI Hardware RAID 1 but was problematic)
• Main Function: Ajera Accounting and Time keeping application

SERVER 2 – Windows SBS 2003 Premium

• Intel S3200SH Motherboard w/ Xeon Processor
• 4gb RAM
• 2 Windows 500 GB Mirror Sets C: Boot & D: Data (Previously used LSI Hardware RAID 1 but was problematic)
• Functions: Domain Controller, AD, Exchange, Backup Exec 11, Trend Micro Client/Server, Two Networked Printers, File server.

SUGGESTED LOAD BALANCING PLAN
Move the following functions from Server 1 to Server 2

• Networked Printer functions
• Trend Micro Client/Server
• Backup Exec (most of the data is on Server 2 but this will be done at nights/weekends)
• Move some or all data
• Add More RAM to

This will leave the SBS (Server 2) to just Domain Controller, AD and Exchange functions.

 

[58sniper]

What you're proposing has nothing to do with load balancing. You're not trying to get more than one server to do the same thing. You're trying to shift the load around.

You haven't included any relevant details, such as errors appearing in any logs, perfmon performance data, etc.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[technobia]

I guess I need educating. The issues I am having are as I stated.

1. It takes about 30 minutes to fully reboot
2. It take a very long time 2-5 minutes for clients to login.

My assumption is that one server is doing a lot and the other is not doing much.

I do not have error just performance issues. I can not do a perfmon at this time as the system is having the MoBo replaced. I thought I would take this down time to switch some stuff.

 

[58sniper]

I'd wait till the server was back up and use perfmon to watch things like drive activity & latency. Are the drives chunking away during the whole reboot cycle?

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[technome]

What CPU speed are those Xeons running?

Have you run DcDiag.exe and NetDiag.exe with the verbose switch (/v), and corrected errors which come up?

Trend Micro Client/Server, is this optimized according to Trend Micro, as to which folders/files are excluded from scanning..I do not use it, but most AVs have recommended settings which can be critical.

If you have managed switches, are any ports showing unusually amounts of errors?

Have all machines, including the servers been scanned for malware with likes of Spybot ?


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[technobia]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and direction. I will check all the above.

However due to other conditions, I have had to reinstall the OS from scratch. So it will be awhile before I have anything to report. I am suspecting some corruption issues as well so this will help sort things out and provide a clean slate (I hope) Thanks again!

 

[Zelandakh]

You reinstalled which server?

 

[technobia]

Server 2 (SBS). Still having issues with it I can not get it to boot so this discussion is moot until I can get the server back up.

 

[Zelandakh]

Hope the other server is a DC so you don't need to recreate all domain accounts.
Hope the other server isn't a DC so you can get SBS installed without needing to use the disaster recovery options.

 

[technobia]

Well I had to do a fresh install of SBS and I recreateed all the domain acounts. I still have much to do but now I can not map drives for clients.

See post

http://www.tek-tips.com/userthreads.cfm?handle=technobia

This is a NIGHTMARE!!! the Boss is going to be upset in the AM if I can not get this working.... And I have not even started on getting Exchange back up yet....

 

[Zelandakh]

Mapped drives probably need WINS running depending how you have done things.

Boss shouldn't be angry if he sanctioned the reload. These things take time which is why it needs to be mighty horlicksed before you should consider a format and reload.