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Chapter 9. Open system servers - Windows 315

more physical memory up to a point, will enable the file system cache to grow even larger, up

to these stated maximums.

On a server with a lot of physical memory (2 GB or more), it may be preferable to leave the

option Maximize data throughput for file sharing selected (that is, as long as the total

amount of memory used by the operating system and server applications does not exceed

the amount of physical RAM minus 960 MB). In fact, any application server that can have 960

MB or more of RAM unused, will likely improve performance by enabling the large system

cache.

By enabling this, all of the disk and network I/O performance benefits of using a large file

system cache are realized, and the applications running on the server continue to run without

being memory-constrained.

Some applications have their own memory management optimizers built into them, including

Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange. In such instances, the setting above is best

set to Maximize throughput for network applications to let the application manage

memory and their own internal system cache as it sees appropriate.

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 837331 for more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=837331

9.2.4 Disabling unnecessary services

When Windows is first installed, there are some services running on your server that may be

unnecessary. Also when some applications are installed, some services that are not actually

required may be running. These services waste server resources so that you should disable

them.

Services can be seen in the Computer Management console. To view services running on

Windows, right-click My Computer and select Manage. Then the Computer Management

window will appear. Select Services in the left pane of the window. Click the Standard tab at

the bottom of the right-side pane. Then a window similar to that shown in Figure 9-5 on

page 316 will appear.

316 IBM TotalStorage DS6000 Series: Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Figure 9-5 Windows Server 2003 Services window

You should stop services that are not needed to free additional memory to those that need it

most, such as the operating system and user applications. To do this, select a service from

the service list and click Stop.

Also examine the startup values of the installed services. Right-click the service and select

Properties. Select Disabled if you do not want this service to run at all on server startup, or

Manual if you want to start a service only at the time you need to use it.

On Windows Server 2003, many services are added from Window 2000 to strengthen

security. Most of the startup type of them are set to Disabled or Manual by default, but some

of them are set to Automatic. When booted, the services set to Automatic are enabled and

use resources. Actually, some of these services are not required, so you should stop them

and set their startup type to Disabled or Manual. For example, the Print Spooler service is

enabled by default, but usually this service is not required if the server doesn’t work as a print

spooler or doesn’t have a local printer.

Table 9-2 lists the services that should be considered whether the system requires them or

not on Windows Server 2003 system. This list is not applicable for all systems but just the

recommendation for a usual system. For example, File Replication Service (FRS) is normally

required for Active Directory domain controller but, for other servers, this service would not be

required. These services are not disabled by default. Before disabling these services, further

investigation is required.

Table 9-2 Windows startup service recommendations

Service Default Startup Type Recommended Setting

Application Management Manual Disabled