Hi We have Server 2003 SBS, and we have a large number of files on it in a shared folder (130,000+) when people do a search from local PCs the whole system slows to a snails pace for everyone accessing it, is it due to the sheer number of files or maybe the file hierarchy as the top folder has 1300 sub folders, any help much appreciated. Server is a HP ML350 G5, 4GB RAM, RAID 5

Hi, read carefully this article http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Windows-Server-2003-Performance-Tuning.html HTHEdoardo Benussi - Microsoft MVP Management Infrastructure - Systems Administration https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/Profile/Benussi Windows Server Italian Forum Moderator edo[at]mvps[dot]org

Thanks for the info but it does not answer the question, I have used the guide btu it doesnt answer the question as to what causes the slowness, it only happens during searches and if I were to dir from dos the entire drive. The question really was does the layout and hierarchical structure or teh amount of files add to the problem, the server is alreayd maxed out with memory and tweaked from the various MS articles to utilise it to the best ability. The disk queue value is high but so is the pages/second but then is that not simply due to the search accessing lots of stuff. Will faster disks help? will none RAID help ?

Thanks for the info but it does not answer the question, I have used the guide btu it doesnt answer the question as to what causes the slowness, it only happens during searches and if I were to dir from dos the entire drive. The question really was does the layout and hierarchical structure or teh amount of files add to the problem, the server is alreayd maxed out with memory and tweaked from the various MS articles to utilise it to the best ability. The disk queue value is high but so is the pages/second but then is that not simply due to the search accessing lots of stuff. Will faster disks help? will none RAID help ? likely causes could be: 1) hierarchical structure 2) fragmentation of data on hard disk 3) rpm of disk have RAID don't help. modify one or more of 3 points written above can conduct to a better situation.Edoardo Benussi - Microsoft MVP Management Infrastructure - Systems Administration https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/Profile/Benussi Windows Server Italian Forum Moderator edo[at]mvps[dot]org

I had this problem with our file structure as well. We have around 8,000 folders and 225,000 files and the system was slow to open files from any of the clients. I spent a month or so looking into this problem and was able to show some speed increases by changing the indexing settings for the folders on the client side. I also went out and downloaded Diskeeper 2010 and it discovered the disks were highly fragmented. After a few days of running the software I noticed the server was quite a bit faster. Are you using NFS? What speed are the disks? The server I had this problem on was also an SBS 2003 server and it came down to the server was just doing too much with what it had to work with. What speed are your clients connecting at? I had an office full of 100mbps so I upgraded the switches and clients to GB - that made a huge difference. Issues like this can be caused by several different things. In some cases the symptoms are not serious, in others they are the beginning of a huge headache. Remember, Perfmon is your friend...

I had this problem with our file structure as well. We have around 8,000 folders and 225,000 files and the system was slow to open files from any of the clients. I spent a month or so looking into this problem and was able to show some speed increases by changing the indexing settings for the folders on the client side. I also went out and downloaded Diskeeper 2010 and it discovered the disks were highly fragmented. After a few days of running the software I noticed the server was quite a bit faster. Are you using NFS? What speed are the disks? The server I had this problem on was also an SBS 2003 server and it came down to the server was just doing too much with what it had to work with. What speed are your clients connecting at? I had an office full of 100mbps so I upgraded the switches and clients to GB - that made a huge difference. Issues like this can be caused by several different things. In some cases the symptoms are not serious, in others they are the beginning of a huge headache. Remember, Perfmon is your friend... We had things just running horrid slow until I opened the indexing console in MMC using the indexing snap-in. You would be suprised that the file server doesn't index these right off the bat. Setup the Indexing service to optimise your file server access.Steve Kline Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator Microsoft Certified Product Specialist Microsoft Certified Network Product Specialist This posting is "as is" without warranties and confers no rights.

Yep, I noticed the same thing, it made a huge difference. The only thing that did more was moving everything off the SBS server onto Server 2008!