J
Jay Chan
Our users has experienced very slow response from our server from
time to time. I have a hard time in pin-pointing the source of this
problem. I would like to know if anyone can help me with that.
The server is a Pentium-III 1.26 GHz with 1GB RAM, and it is running
Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 3). It is being used for the
following purposes:
- Background services:
o Domain Controller with Active Directory
o Global Catelog
o DNS
o Apache Web Server
o MS SQL Server
o File Server
o Anti-virus software
- Foreground processes:
o Run a batch process every half hour. One part of the batch
process uses MS-Access to print barcode labels.
The server has been configured to optimize performance for background
services.
There are around 40 users connected to that server at any time. But
they are not very active. Most of the time, the server is in idle,
and its CPU utilization remains at only 2%. And people can have a
reasonably fast response from the server.
However, from time to time, some users complain that they have a hard
time getting response. The client application will appear to be
loading a page from the server for a long time, and then it will time
out. Or someone may have a long delay when he is trying to open a
folder in the server.
One thing that I noticed is that the CPU utilization always jumps up
to 99% when the foreground process starts printing barcode labels.
Seem like the MS-Access program is using something like 85% of CPU
time, and the rest is being used by an anti-virus software. I thought
that is the cause of the problem. But this doesn't seem to be the
case. The reasons are: (1) I still get fast response from the server
when the server is busily printing barcode labels. (2) The operating
system can dynamically re-distribute the CPU time away from the
MS-Access label printing program, and allocate the CPU time to other
programs (let say reducing the MS-Access CPU usage from 85% down to
50%, and allocating most of the rest to the other program). In other
words, the fact that the MS-Access is using 99% CPU time may seem odd
to me; but this doesn't seem to be causing problem.
Can someone help me with these:
- Suggest a way to find out the cause of the problem. Hopefully we
can find a fix as soon as we determine the cause of the problem.
- Is there a tool to track the top 10 processes that use the most
CPU time over time? I can see the current CPU utilization of each
process by looking at the info in Task Manager. But this is just a
snapshot. I would like to see the result over a period of time
(let say the last 10 minutes). Then I can trace back to see what
happened 2 minutes ago when a user complains about slow
performance. I have examined Performance Monitor. But I don't know
how to configure it to show the info that I need. Any idea?
Thanks.
Jay Chan
time to time. I have a hard time in pin-pointing the source of this
problem. I would like to know if anyone can help me with that.
The server is a Pentium-III 1.26 GHz with 1GB RAM, and it is running
Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 3). It is being used for the
following purposes:
- Background services:
o Domain Controller with Active Directory
o Global Catelog
o DNS
o Apache Web Server
o MS SQL Server
o File Server
o Anti-virus software
- Foreground processes:
o Run a batch process every half hour. One part of the batch
process uses MS-Access to print barcode labels.
The server has been configured to optimize performance for background
services.
There are around 40 users connected to that server at any time. But
they are not very active. Most of the time, the server is in idle,
and its CPU utilization remains at only 2%. And people can have a
reasonably fast response from the server.
However, from time to time, some users complain that they have a hard
time getting response. The client application will appear to be
loading a page from the server for a long time, and then it will time
out. Or someone may have a long delay when he is trying to open a
folder in the server.
One thing that I noticed is that the CPU utilization always jumps up
to 99% when the foreground process starts printing barcode labels.
Seem like the MS-Access program is using something like 85% of CPU
time, and the rest is being used by an anti-virus software. I thought
that is the cause of the problem. But this doesn't seem to be the
case. The reasons are: (1) I still get fast response from the server
when the server is busily printing barcode labels. (2) The operating
system can dynamically re-distribute the CPU time away from the
MS-Access label printing program, and allocate the CPU time to other
programs (let say reducing the MS-Access CPU usage from 85% down to
50%, and allocating most of the rest to the other program). In other
words, the fact that the MS-Access is using 99% CPU time may seem odd
to me; but this doesn't seem to be causing problem.
Can someone help me with these:
- Suggest a way to find out the cause of the problem. Hopefully we
can find a fix as soon as we determine the cause of the problem.
- Is there a tool to track the top 10 processes that use the most
CPU time over time? I can see the current CPU utilization of each
process by looking at the info in Task Manager. But this is just a
snapshot. I would like to see the result over a period of time
(let say the last 10 minutes). Then I can trace back to see what
happened 2 minutes ago when a user complains about slow
performance. I have examined Performance Monitor. But I don't know
how to configure it to show the info that I need. Any idea?
Thanks.
Jay Chan