Server is HP Proliant ML330 G6, with 8Gb RAM, running Windows SBS2011 Standard Edition. The current version of the operating system is 6.1.7601. The processor is an Intel Xeon E5606. The system area is on a mirrored 250 Gb hard disk, controlled by a Smart Array P410. This controller also has a 1Tb data disk attached to it. There is an additional controller, a Smart Array P212 which has a HP DAT160 tape drive attached to it. The server has a 1 Gb network card installed (it actually has 2, but we are only using 1), and is connected to a new Procurve gigabit switch. All clients have 100Mb connectivity. All clients are Windows XP SP3, and are on roaming profiles.
The client was running SBS 2003 on a fairly old server. They were migrated across to this new server and the clients have been experiencing some quite poor performance issues since. The two main areas where there are problems are within Outlook, and Sage 50 accounts. Within Outlook (connected as an Exchange client) clicking on a new email can take seconds to open, and sorting within a folder can take longer. Using Sage 50 can be quite painful at times, especially when sorting columns or running reports. For instance, sorting purchase orders into client order ran almost instantly when on the old server, but can now take anything up to a minute, and sometimes longer if someone else is running something similar. In addition, opening files from shares appears to take slightly longer than before. There were no issues on the previous server.
I have already carried out a number of options:
- Installed SP1 on the server as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2493361
- Disabled SMB2 on the server.
- Verified the binding order on the NICs on the server.
- Updated all NIC and Storage Controller drivers on the server.
- Removed Symantec AV from the server.
- Disabled ARP Offload, IPv4 Checksum Offload, NS Offload, TCP/UDP Checksum Offload on server NIC.
- Ran SBS 2011 BPA, which showed a couple of warnings, but nothing of any consequence.
- Disabled QOS on server NIC.
Obviously the client isn’t too happy with this situation, especially as they had no issue with the old server. They are pushing for a resolution to this, but I am out of ideas. I appreciate that the amount of RAM in the new server isn’t exactly high, but I am hesitant to spend any money unless there is a pretty good chance that it is going to help.
Any ideas would be very warmly welcomed!