Two NICS on server, two subnets setup help

[alex0628]

Our primary file server is also where engineering stores and accesses their engineering drawings. Recently I installed a new member server that houses our new business system. There also is a web server, Symantec/Surfcontrol server and SQL server. There are about 60 connections to the entire network. The primary server is also the AD, DNS, DHCP and WINS server. The SQL server is the secondary domain server, so DNS and WINS is replicated there.

Ever since the new business system server was installed, the engineers have been complaining about slower performance when accessing engineering files on the main file server. The main server is a dual proccessor, 2GB ram RAID 5 Dell unit. The processor never goes over 30% utilization, and that's only when an engineer is accessing larger assemblies. I'm wondering if there is something about the new business system that is causing the problem. I'm looking for ways to improve performance for the engineers.

I can't get approval to buy engineering their own server, but what if I split them off on a different subnet on the second NIC in the main server? Since everyone and every server is connected via Cisco switches, maybe this might help with whatever is causing their slow server access problems? That puts the new business system server on one subnet, and the engineers on another. That also takes them off the subnet that handles Internet traffic. Will this help?

 

[NortonES2]

You've checked the CPU utilization, also check the memory usage on the server and network utilization to discover what the bottleneck is.

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If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

 

[pgaliardo]

It may help if you are sure that the network is the bottleneck. If it isn't, the new subnet probably won't help much. Is there a possibilty of moving engineering's files to the new member server?

I inherited a network where the main server was doing everything (AD, Global Catalog, DNS, WINS,file sharing,print server, etc.) I've already moved all of the printers off it and am in the process of moving the shared files to a dedicated file server. File sharing off of the main server is just too slow.

 

[alex0628]

I'm using Observer to monitor utilization. (It can't see each channel off the Cisco switches, but can see overall utilization.) No problems there that I can see as of yet. The highest it spikes to is 60%, but usually sits below 30% and quite a bit below 10%. If engineering is causing some sort of a bottleneck with their 3d cad software, maybe I can isolate it by putting them on their own subnet? Then, if there is a problem, only their subnet is affected and I can isolate the problem to them, which might help me build a case to get them their own server?

 

[pgaliardo]

Then as a troubleshooting tool, you can do this. If the engineer's subnet is slow and the other is fine, then you've made a good case that the engineer's are hogging up resources. There are a few nuances to watch out for when creating another subnet. For example, the engineer's workstations are probably using DNS and WINS addresses from the old subnet. Putting them on another subnet means they may not see these addresses now, unless you are connecting the subnets with a router, etc.

Also, you said the engineers started complaining after you added a new member server. It almost seems like you should start your troubleshooting there, with the new server. Is it possible it has a bad nic that is sending out broadcasts or something? Just a thought.

 

[kmcferrin]

Another thought, the bottleneck might be the disk subsystem instead of the network. If the new business software is accessing something on the hard disk of the file server then you could be seeing some performance degradation there are as well.

You could certainly separate the engineers onto the own subnet/VLAN and see what happens, but that will only help if the issue is network related. If it is anything else then it won't have an effect.