Bandaid required

[AKPolarBear]

Server is Dell 6300 with dual Xeon 450, 2 GB Ram
Metaframe is 1.8 SP2 over NT Term Server with SP6a
Office 97 installed on this server. Other servers include accounting application and SQL on W2K, Exchange on NT. We have 45+ users that typically have 3 - 4 applications open and about 4 - 8 screens open in total.

The bottle neck is our Metaframe server. CPU used to idle along at 20-30% but now is at 50% or more. Quite often it is at 99 -100% for prolong periods of time. Accounting application tends to load processor time when users leave certain screens open. Some Excel queries or SQL searches also have same effect.

We are reeducating the users on the amount of windows and applications they have open in order to reduce load. Remote locations complain of more slowness then local users. We use VPN's to those locations with good connection to one, less than good to another.

While we foresee upgrading the server, it is not likely to happen this year. I am looking for other possible ideas to increase throughput. I might be able to add a second comparable server and create a Citrix farm. I can add more processors to the server, but that probably won't do anything to increase over all speed. Drives are SCSI 10K spin.

Open to suggestions or other bandaids.

 

[JonStanton]

The most honest answer I can give you is that putting 45 users on that server is always going to give you problems.

With 45 users I would expect at least two servers (even if they were a new spec.). Your RAM is probably sufficient (you should not see any pagefile activity), but your processors won't cope. Basically if two apps are running which require a chunk of the processor (e.g. Access database or the accounting app running a report) then everyone else will have to wait their turn. You can try to give any particularly processor-hungry apps a lower priority, which may help some users.

If you are going to buy a second server, go for the best you can afford. Dual processors with hyper-threading, min 2GB RAM, 15k HDDs. It will be worth it in the long run!

 

[ascotta]

Not a rule of thumb but a guideline.

15 - 20 users per processor. 20-40M per user.

However do not of eggs and baskets be putting in the one.

As Jon says minimum you need is two servers maybe even three, for redundancy, i.s you can lose one and the users know nothing about it.

[blue] This industry suffers from the three four P's People Profiles and Printers and planks with D at the start.[/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[AKPolarBear]

What about my version of Metaframe? I know it is outdated, not supported but it does work for us. Should I acquire the same version or go with something newer and try to make them work together?
Licensing fees to purchase new OS, Citrix, Office etc for two new servers were the budget breaker. But I might be able to get a new server if I can cut some costs on the software side.

 

[ascotta]

So you don;'t have Subscription Advantage which would have entitledd you to all the upgrades, Citrix wise. You can currently get back on Subscription, worth a call to your reseller to see if you can. Might be cheaper to upgrade to the Advance level.

To be honest I hated NT4 TS edition it just stank. However if yours is working then why fix, your problem is the number of users. I don't think you will be able to add a server in. Think you need a new farm. Which will probably cost a bit.

[blue] This industry suffers from the three four P's People Profiles and Printers and planks with D at the start.[/blue]

Cheers
Scott