jrblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu (James Roger Black) (06/05/90)
We are using a Novell server with Dayna VAPs to provide file service for our AppleTalk network. Most of our Macs are Pluses, with a smattering of IIs and SEs. We have tried connecting the Macs directly to the server through LocalTalk, and indirectly over Ethernet through GatorBoxes. We are having serious performance problems with the server either way. A large part of our problem seems to be related to the way the Mac searches for resources when opening a DeskTop window. For example, if a user has the Novell server mounted and opens the local System Folder, it appears that the Mac goes out and scans the server DeskTop in an effort to find the resource information it needs to display the appropriate icon or filetype information. It does this every time a new window is opened, even if it just did it half a second ago for a different window. As you can imagine, this creates a lot of traffic if there are thirty or forty users opening and closing windows all the time. We have seen server CPU utilization hit 97% repeatedly, while the same server reports almost zero disk utilization. In other words, the server has already cached all the information it needs to provide, and is spending almost all its time sending the same DeskTop information over and over again to the Macs, who use the info once, throw it away, and then ask for it again. This doesn't seem real efficient, to say the least. We are relative novices to AppleTalk, so it is quite possible we are missing something obvious or misunderstanding what is going on. If anybody can clarify what's going on here--or, better, if anybody can tell us how to fix it--we would be very grateful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Black jrblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu Disclaimer: My employer doesn't even know I have any opinions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tom@wcc.oz (Tom Evans) (06/07/90)
In article <1613@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>, jrblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu (James Roger Black) writes: > We are using a Novell server with Dayna VAPs to provide file service for our > AppleTalk network... We are having > serious performance problems with the server either way. > > We have seen server CPU utilization hit 97% repeatedly, while the same server > reports almost zero disk utilization. Is it possible to put the server directly on Ethernet? If it is on LocalTalk you might be seeing all the CPU time going into manually sending the LocalTalk packets, byte by byte (like all Macs have to do it). > We are relative novices to AppleTalk, so it is quite possible we are missing > something obvious or misunderstanding what is going on. The slowdown may also be due to LocalTalk's limited bandwidth. One Plus or SE can suck (server willing) about 16kbytes/sec over LocalTalk (Mac II's can suck 20kbytes/sec). LocalTalk maxes out at about 21 to 22kbytes/sec, so two simultaneous sessions slow each other down by 35%. ======================== Tom Evans tom@wcc.oz.au Webster Computer Corp P/L, 1270 Ferntree Gully Rd Scoresby, Melbourne 3179 Victoria, Australia 61-3-764-1100 FAX ...764-1179 wcc@cup.portal.com 2109 O'Toole Avenue, Suite J SAN JOSE CA 95131 - 1303 CALIFORNIA 1-408-954-8054 FAX 1-408-954-1832 Unit 7, Weltech Centre Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City Herfordshire AL7 2AA LONDON UK. Ph 44-707-336969 Mobile 44-836-725849 FAX 44-707-373378