RE: Large amounts of RAM (>4GB) in a 32-bit TS server and PAE
- From: steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <stevemcmillaninccom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:00:47 -0700
David,
Im in the exact same situation.
Dell 2800 server standard - two processors, raid, 4GB and the users are
complaining from time to time that it is slow. We only have 25 to 35 users on
it at any time.
They are running word, excel, access, outlook, and some other apps.
Ive been trying to find out if I just upgrade to enterprise if that would
help or, if I upgrade and throw ram at it, or, etc.
I tried to read the sizing and capacity doc but, I dont find it real useful.
It says "tune PagedPoolSize in the registry to help performance" -
Sure...how...what values..."
Other docs say to use performance monitor - sure...how...what am I looking at?
Please let me know if you find a solution.
thanks.
Steve
"David Chadwick" wrote:
Hi,.
I know this has been asked a few times and I have researched as much as I
can read about this issue. However, I still feel that I don't have any real
answers and hence this question.
My work currently has a single TS server and it is bogged down, slow etc.
It has 4GB of RAM. The potential solution put forward is to replace it with
a new server with 16GB of RAM and Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition (it
currently has Windows 2003 Standard Edition).
Being vaguely aware of the 4GB address space limit (2GB for kernel and 2GB
for apps), PAE and AWE I thought I should research this before approving the
PO for the new server. The solution has been put forward without any
knowledge of a 32-bit address space and how this all works. Instead, the
proposal is operating on the "throw RAM at it and it will be fast"
principal.
There has been lots of discussion on why PAE might be *bad* on a server (as
it may use up more of the kernel space), and plenty of discussion as to why
it might not make any difference (if the limiting factor is the 2GB kernel
space). I realise that the kernel address space is 2GB no matter how much
RAM you put in (in 32-bit OS).
My confusion is that I don't understand when PAE might actually be GOOD in a
TS environment. What parts of TS would utilise PAE? Would the 2GB
application part of every process now be free to use all the large amount of
RAM? I realise each process would still be restricted to 2GB addressable
each (unless they used AWE), but will all the applications at least "spread
out" into all that newly available RAM?
Obviously this is assuming that the 2GB kernel space isn't the limiting
factor. How can I tell whether the "application part" of the per-process
4GB address space would be helped by more RAM and PAE? How can I tell
whether this side of things is struggling? How can I tell whether it's the
kernel RAM that is struggling? This is the real crux of my issue - I know
that noone can diagnose what is best from afar... what I need to know is how
I go about diagnosing it myself. This is where my knowledge gap is. This
is the information I have been totally unable to find on the internet.
I've never seen a good explanation of exactly what I should be monitoring
for in order to work it out. I'm more than happy to run performance monitor
and capture whatever data I need to capture, but I have no idea what to do.
I understand that the answer to the question "Will a 16GB 32-bit terminal
server give me any worthwhile performance improvment over one with 4GB?" is
always going to be "it depends". What I am looking for is guidance on how I
can WORK OUT whether it will help me or not. There must be something I can
look at to determine whether the 2GB kernel space is full and whether the
2GB application space would get a boost with more RAM and PAE enabled
(assuming it even helps at all).
Thanks for any help in advance!
Cheers,
Optic
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