Networker

Re: [Networker] Networkers utilization of multiple processors ?

2007-09-14 20:48:11
Subject: Re: [Networker] Networkers utilization of multiple processors ?
From: Dag Nygren <dag AT NEWTECH DOT FI>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:40:21 +0300
> We have a Dell 6650 quad processor server with 4 GB of memory running
> Networker 7.2.2.Build.422 (Power Edition) on Windows 2000 server. Our
> Windows admin has run some performance monitoring tools while our
> backups are running and has questioned why only one processor seems to
> be utilized / loaded during our peak load times. EMC designed our entire
> setup including the server, library (dell PV-136T with 3 IBM LTO-2
> drives connected via fibre channel) based on their assessment of our
> backup environment. We have approximately 100 clients (60% Win boxes),
> including 2 Exchange servers, and one SQL server. We backup a total of 8
> to 10 Terabytes a week.
> The network interface does not seem to be any where near being maxxed
> out, nor does memory....
> 
> Is the Networker software not written to take advantage of the multiple
> processors if they exist ? If it is, how can we tune it to make best use
> all of the hardware resources available ?
> If it is not written to utilize the multiple processors, why was a
> multi-processor machine specified for the server platform ?

Networker certainly will use many processors if available as it consists
of many processes.
nsrindexd is multithreaded in your version
In 7.3 nsrmmdbd additionally is multithreaded.

Which process(es) do you see using that processor?

You might also want to take a look at the I/O structure, specifically
interrupts, where traditionally the PC architecture has had problems
as it had to route all interrupts through one processor in the
multiprocessor setup. And Networker is very interrupt-heavy because
of the amount of I/O requested.

You could also consider changing the OS to Linux ;-)

Best
Dag

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