Exchange 2003 Questions: Performance

M

Manu

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 3, 2003
Messages
203
Hey everyone. I have an exchange 2003 sp1 enterprise server running on Windows 2003 SP1. I am getting really big performance spikes, with processor usage jumping from an idle of 4-8% to 65-75%, and it seems to be happening with some regularity.

The IS is about 50GB. The server is a RAID 5 10K SCSI, 4GB of RAM, Dual 3.06GHz HT enabled server.

Any ideas on what I can to do see where my bottleneck is? ANy suggestions on how to speed up exchange?

Thanks
Manu
 
Note what times the spikes occur and look in event viewer to see what services are starting up.

Also check and see what times you have Mailbox Mangement set to run.
 
Have you checked which process is causing the spikes in the task manager? That would help.

To speed up exchange, I would run Microsoft's Exchange Best Practices Analyzer.
 
What antivirus are you running on the server, and if you're running a proper server AV package along with an Exchange plugin.....have you excluded the 2x Exchange directories from real time file protection?

50 gig info store....kept on a separate volume from the OS and pagefile?
 
puck-

Nothing reported in event view.

versello-

store.exe is the on spiking from 2-3 to 50ish

StoneCat-

Running TrendMicro Server Protect. I don't think I have those directories excluded, that is a good call and I will look into that.

The store is indeed on a seperate partition than the OS and pagefile.

Pigster-

Thanks for the link, will read up.

Thanks everyone.
 
Manu said:
StoneCat-

Running TrendMicro Server Protect. I don't think I have those directories excluded, that is a good call and I will look into that.
.
Click to expand...

Yeah..generally you want your mdbdata and mtadata directories excluded from your regular OS's antivirus real time file protection...as long as you're also running an Exchange plugin for your AV product.
 
You'll see that if a user runs a large search on their mailbox. With a 50GB infostore I don't think it would be that big of a surprise. The infostore on one of my servers is about 80GB and I can really drive up the cpu with a big search on my mailbox (2GB).
 
NetJunkie said:
You'll see that if a user runs a large search on their mailbox. With a 50GB infostore I don't think it would be that big of a surprise. The infostore on one of my servers is about 80GB and I can really drive up the cpu with a big search on my mailbox (2GB).
Click to expand...

What are the specs on the box you run this on? how many users?

StoneCat-

Thanks, I excluded those directories, and we'll see how it goes.
 
Manu said:
What are the specs on the box you run this on? how many users?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I just re-read your specs. That machine is more than capable of your size mail database even doing large searches. I've seen that much CPU during searches on one of our mail servers with a 70GB database, but it was a dual 1.1 GHz HP DL380. I don't see it on our new DL380G4 cluster with dual 3.06GHz CPUs.
 
versello said:
It's more important to keep the logs separated from Exchange / OS.
Click to expand...

What do you mean the logs from Exchange/OS.

Right now, I have Exchange in program files on the primary partition that the OS sits on. In that directory is my exchange.logs folder, is that not a good setup?

Manu
 
Manu said:
What do you mean the logs from Exchange/OS.

Right now, I have Exchange in program files on the primary partition that the OS sits on. In that directory is my exchange.logs folder, is that not a good setup?

Manu
Click to expand...

You really want to separate everything out if possible. Of couse doing it right means 10 hard drives and 3 SCSI channels.. but I don't know anyone who actually does this.

You want the Exchange logs on their own volume and the best would be your Exchange Databases on their own volume too.

Also RAID 10 is recommended for performance over RAID 5.

So according to microsoft to do it right you want:
Volume one made of: two drives in RAID 1 for the OS and the exchange application on its own SCSI channel
Volume two made of: Four drives in RAID 10 for the exchange databases on its own SCSI channel
Volume three made of: Four drives in RAID 10 for the exchange logs on its own SCSI channel

for a total of 10 hard drives and three SCSI channels.

A bit much yes, but the biggest performance increase (after verifying you have enough RAM) is to separate the log files onto their own volume.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=821915&SD=tech

==>Lazn
 
Your specs say 4GB physical RAM.

1. Memory fragmentation?
Are you running with the recommended /3GB /USERVA=3030 kernel boot switches with your current physical memory? Have the Dump Heap Stack registry configurations for 4 GB physical RAM been set?

2. Get your DB and Logs off the Sys drive.
Technet and msexchange.org have easy to follow directions.

3. Speaking of logs; are you purging your logs with a proper daily backup plan?
A successful daily backup plan must run! This flushes committed logs to the database.
If you aren't running a 3rd Party Exchange server backup app (Veritas, ArcServ) the integrated NT Backup will perform a full backup, with a verify for database integrity, and flush the logs.... important!

4. For starters I would go get the EXBP Analyzer & the EXMon utilites from Technet downloads - Exchange Resouce kit files. EXBP will scan your AD config and Exchange setup for running errors or config issues, with links on how to change/fix on any config issues. EXBP is a great free program! (the Exchange Dev Team is GREAT!)) I use EXMon on a daily basis; it monitors Exchange load & user consumption.

5. Antivirus
I am not familiar with the TM product. Is this an actual Exchange Server vsapi based product? Are updates/patches from TM installed? Note: A typical File Server antivirus product could take an Exchange server to its knees and totally screw up the database.
 
j4zzee said:
Your specs say 4GB physical RAM.

1. Memory fragmentation?
Are you running with the recommended /3GB /USERVA=3030 kernel boot switches with your current physical memory? Have the Dump Heap Stack registry configurations for 4 GB physical RAM been set?
Click to expand...
Sorry for the long delay in response, I appreciated your input.

I do have the boot switches. What is the Dump Heap Stack registry configuration? I believe I set those a while back, but am not 100% sure.

2. Get your DB and Logs off the Sys drive.
Technet and msexchange.org have easy to follow directions.
Click to expand...
Done. Noticed improvement, but still has those peaks.

3. Speaking of logs; are you purging your logs with a proper daily backup plan?
A successful daily backup plan must run! This flushes committed logs to the database.
If you aren't running a 3rd Party Exchange server backup app (Veritas, ArcServ) the integrated NT Backup will perform a full backup, with a verify for database integrity, and flush the logs.... important!
Click to expand...
Run Veritas BUE, Flush comited logs after every full/incremental backup.

4. For starters I would go get the EXBP Analyzer & the EXMon utilites from Technet downloads - Exchange Resouce kit files. EXBP will scan your AD config and Exchange setup for running errors or config issues, with links on how to change/fix on any config issues. EXBP is a great free program! (the Exchange Dev Team is GREAT!)) I use EXMon on a daily basis; it monitors Exchange load & user consumption.
Click to expand...
I've done the BP, that came back good, will cehck out EXMon.

5. Antivirus
I am not familiar with the TM product. Is this an actual Exchange Server vsapi based product? Are updates/patches from TM installed? Note: A typical File Server antivirus product could take an Exchange server to its knees and totally screw up the database.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is an actual Exchange VSAPI product, scanmail for exchange, by Trend. It is all up to date.

One thing, is it common/normal to have about 1.24GB of logs files in about a 24 hour period?
 
Posting here to mark and remind myself to go over tomorrow.

And BTW, MS's whiz-bang box recommends something like 28 disks. All RAID 10 with shit spread out everywhere. It's insane. I'll have to scan in that page in my MOC book.
 
feigned said:
Posting here to mark and remind myself to go over tomorrow.

And BTW, MS's whiz-bang box recommends something like 28 disks. All RAID 10 with shit spread out everywhere. It's insane. I'll have to scan in that page in my MOC book.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats what someone else suggested here, its pretty crazy, how many orgnaizations have the funs for that?
 
it should depend on your email volume, not the amount of time. so it might be reasonable for 1 person, but not for another. but in general- yeah, i don't think that's crazy at all. probably about what i get if not less. okay, i just checked and i've got 127MB of logs since midnight . . . but remember that basically no emails have been going during that time (midnight till 9 am). i'll try to check our logs around 1pm and report back.
Manu said:
One thing, is it common/normal to have about 1.24GB of logs files in about a 24 hour period?
Click to expand...
 
Manu said:
Yeah, thats what someone else suggested here, its pretty crazy, how many orgnaizations have the funs for that?
Click to expand...
Nobody should put all of their eggs in the same basket.

Multiple servers > one badass server
 
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