TITLE: How to Configure a NetWare Lite v1.1 Server DOCUMENT ID: TID1200549 DOCUMENT REVISION: 1 DATE: 4DEC92 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: NETWARE LITE V1.1 ABSTRACT: NA --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEAN TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE: HOW TO CONFIGURE A NETWARE LITE V1.1 SERVER The purpose of this document is to explain the server statistics that are configurable within NetWare Lite. These server statistics can be viewed and changed in the Net utility. To access the configuration menus, perform the following steps after logging in to the network: 1. From the c:> prompt, type NET. 2. Select "Supervise the network." 3. Select "Server configuration." 4. Select the server to view. SERVER CONFIGURATION SCREEN The following is an example of the server configuration screen with default settings: Configuration Information for Server NETWARE LITE CFG FUTURE Connections (2-25):4 4 Client tasks (4-200):10 10 Network directories (2-20):4 4 Network printers (0-3):1 1 Print buffer size (512-4096):512 512 Number of receive buffers (3-20):6 6 Receive buffer size (512-8192):1024 1024 Number of IO buffers (0-25):1 1 IO buffer size multiplier (2-64):4 4 Future server memory size (approx.):44,397 Allow remote management (Y/N):Y Y Future server name: :NWLITE CFG and FUTURE Columns There are two columns of statistics on the right of this table labeled CFG and FUTURE. The CFG column indicates the settings that are currently being used. The FUTURE column is used to determine the network settings to be implemented the next time the network is started. If you want to make a change, make it in the FUTURE column and then reboot that server. After the server is rebooted, the new settings will be in effect and will appear in the CFG column. CONFIGURATION SETTINGS Each item in the menu will be discussed in some detail. After each item is described, configuration information will be given to help correctly configure each item. CONNECTIONS Every computer on the network (client or server or both) has a connection table. This table keeps track of the number of connections that the computer has with other computers. Users are not able to view this table; however, the number of connections can be limited on a server. A connection is established when one computer accesses another computer across the network. For example, a connection is established if a client accesses a network resource, such as a network directory or network printer, located on a server. SERVER CONNECTION TABLE A server's connection table contains a list of the node addresses of every client computer accessing printers or network directories on that server. Because the connection is actually the node address of the network board, only one connection is established per machine, regardless of how many drives a computer has mapped or how many printers a client machine is captured to. It is not possible for the number of connections in the server-connection table to be greater than the total number of clients on the network. When a server receives a request to map a drive, for example, it will look down the list of existing connections and will create a new connection only if the address of the requesting computer is not already on the list. TEMPORARY CONNECTIONS Temporary connections are occasionally established by the NET utility to do functions such as modify a user account, change a server's configuration. After the net utility has finished using the temporary connection, the connection is cancelled. SETTING CONNECTIONS Set the number of connections for each server by considering how many clients might be mapped or captured to the server at one time and add one to that number to provide for any temporary connections. Each connection in the Server's configuration menu uses approximately 80 bytes of memory. CLIENT TASKS Client tasks are the number of programs permitted to open files on a server. Each time a program on a client uses a resource on a server (such as starting a program), one client task is registered in a table on the server. This is the case whether the client loads the program from the server or whether it loads it from its own hard drive. If the same program opens more than one file, only one client task is still registered because client tasks refer to the number of programs that are opening files and not the number of files that are open on the server. On the other hand, if two different programs on a client open files on a server, then two client tasks are recorded in the table. Some programs call other programs that use server resources. When this happens, client tasks will increase by more than one when the program is initially started. A variety of problems are associated with not having enough client tasks. Usually errors will be displayed by the application that is currently running. Occasionally, the whole network will hang. CLIENT TASK CONFIGURATION INFORMATION The number of client tasks defaults to 10. A good rule of thumb is to set the number of client tasks to 10 per machine connected to the server (For example, If five machines have drives mapped to a server, set the client tasks on the server to 50). This should provide enough client tasks to operate the network. Approximately 100 bytes of memory are reserved on a server per each client task. Check the server status screen frequently to verify that you have enough client tasks. If you see the PEAK number of tasks in the server status screen approaching the CFG number (within 6), you should increase the number of client tasks to avoid problems. The CFG number should always be at least six higher than the PEAK number. Proper configuration of the number of client tasks on a server is especially important under the following conditions: -o- When running Microsoft Windows -o- When using a disk intensive program (a database program) -o- When supporting many clients NETWORK DIRECTORIES A network directory is a directory on a server that can be accessed by clients on the network. Increasing the number of network directories on a server allows more of its directories to be accessed by users across the network. NETWORK DIRECTORY CONFIGURATION INFORMATION Set the number of network directories to as many as needed (up to 20). NETWORK PRINTERS This figure designates the maximum number of network printers allowed on a server. NetWare Lite will support up to three printers per server. A printer on a server does not necessarily have to be designated as a network resource. It can be run locally if SERVER.EXE is not loaded into memory. Each network printer defined takes up approximately 884 bytes of memory on the server. NETWORK PRINTER CONFIGURATION This number should correspond to the number of printers physically connected to the server and defined as network resources. The maximum number of network printers per server is three. PRINT BUFFER SIZE NetWare Lite uses a print buffer to temporarily store information before it is printed. A print job follows the following path to the printer: Application -- DOS -- Client -- || network || -- Server -- Printer When someone prints a job from a client machine to a network printer, the information first goes to DOS. After interpreting that the printer port (LPT1 for example) has been captured to a network printer, DOS sends the print job to the network software on the client machine. The print job is sent across the network cabling to the computer with the printer attached and then taken by the server software and spooled to a directory on the hard drive. The path to where the data is being spooled is C:\NWLITE\NLCNTL \SLPT1. The NLCNTL subdirectory is a hidden directory and the SLPT1 directory corresponds to the printer port captured on LPT1. (If LPT2 was captured, the last subdirectory would be \SLPT2.) The job is spooled as a file then is loaded to an area in memory called the print buffer. From the print buffer, the print job is sent to the printer. The print buffer speeds up the printing, because accessing memory is much faster than accessing a hard disk drive. A large print buffer accesses information from the relatively slow hard drive fewer times and causes faster printing. PRINT BUFFER CONFIGURATION Set the print buffer size to the maximum allowed value, unless limited memory is available. NUMBER OF RECEIVE BUFFERS Each NetWare Lite server has two types of buffers related to overall network communication, which can be configured by a supervisor. They are the receive and IO buffers. Understanding receive and IO buffers and how to configure them requires an understanding of some basic NetWare Lite network communication concepts. When an application makes a request of DOS, such as reading data from a file or writing data to a file, DOS determines whether it can handle the request itself. If the requested operation involves a network resource, such as listing a network directory, DOS passes the request to the network that fills the request and gives the response back to DOS. Then, DOS passes the response back to the application. Each network request passes through four different stages before being sent out on the network cabling. The network provides information to DOS (such as which drives are actually network drives) so that DOS interprets when to pass requests to the network and when to return errors to the requesting application. Three programs provide the interface to the network hardware. They are the Internetwork Packet Exchange Protocol (IPX) driver (IPXODI.COM), the Link Support Layer (LSL) driver (LSL.COM), and the network-board driver (such as NE2000.COM). These three programs take requests from the network level and transform them into packets that are then sent out on the cable. When a packet is received at the server, SERVER.EXE is notified and the packet is placed in a free receive buffer. The server processes the request and then does one of two following action: If the requested operation is a disk read, the server reads the requested amount of data and places the response in a free IO buffer. If the request is for anything else, the server places the response back in the receive buffer where it got the request. The data is then transferred back across the network to the application that originally made the request. NUMBER OF RECEIVE BUFFERS CONFIGURATION INFORMATION Set the number of receive buffers to three more than the number of clients that will be simultaneously accessing the server. The extra receive buffers are important. The server may be servicing requests from every client on the network and still needs extra buffers to listen for additional incoming requests. Even though all client machines may have requests pending at the server, a client may resend a request and the server needs extra buffers to handle any extra packets from the clients. RECEIVE BUFFER SIZE DESCRIPTION AND CONFIGURATION INFORMATION The network is limited to the type of network hardware that is being used. A receive buffer cannot be set to anything larger than the packet size of a particular type of board. Typically Ethernet is limited to a packet size of 1450 bytes and ARCnet and Token-Ring are capable of sending and receiving 4096 byte packets, the limit of NetWare Lite. DOS reads information best in 512 byte increments, so receive buffers should be set to a multiple of 512 bytes even if the packet size is larger than the 512 byte multiple. For example, when using Ethernet boards, set the buffer size to 1024 bytes rather than the maximum allowed 1450 bytes because 1024 is an increment of 512, and the 1024 setting will be faster than 1450 bytes. NUMBER OF IO BUFFERS When a client makes a request, in responding to that request, the server fills the IO buffers with blocks of data to be sent across the cable for the next portion of that request. NUMBER OF IO BUFFERS CONFIGURATION INFORMATION The preferable setting for the number of IO buffers is one per client. Otherwise, set the number of IO buffers to one per every four receive buffers to save memory. Do not set the IO buffers greater than the number of clients that will be accessing the server. IO BUFFER SIZE MULTIPLIER AND CONFIGURATION INFORMATION The IO buffer size multiplier indicates the size, in kilobytes, of each IO buffer. The guideline for setting the IO buffer size multiplier varies depending on the size that you would like your IO buffers to be. If memory is not a consideration, then set the buffer size multiplier high. That will allow more blocks of data to be stored in the IO buffer so that less disk reads are necessary. However, if memory is a consideration a smaller buffer size would be recommended. For every IO buffer, the server size will increase the amount of kilobytes that was specified for the multiplier. For example, if there are three IO buffers and the multiplier is 4, the server will increase in size by 12 KB. ALLOW REMOTE MANAGEMENT If remote management is enabled, a network supervisor will be able to change a server's configuration settings from any machine on the network. If remote management is disabled, a server's configuration settings will only be able to be modified at the keyboard of the server itself. NOTE: Remote Management does not refer to modem use. REMOTE MANAGEMENT CONFIGURATION Enable or disable remote management depending upon the conditions in which the network is running. If security is a concern, remote management may need to be disabled. FUTURE SERVER NAME The future server name is the name that the server will be called the next time the network is started. SERVER STATUS SCREEN Status for Server NETWARE LITE Server up-time 1 Days 4 Hours 2 Minutes 17 Seconds Server version v1.1 Server Address 00001B30EB0A CFG PEAK CURR Network auditing On Connections 4 1 1 SHARE running Yes Client tasks 10 0 0 Server memory size 50,096 Open files 34 0 0 Num net directories 4 1 CUM Num net printers 1 1 Server-busy packets 0 Print buffer size 512 Server cache hits 0% Receive buffers 6 Packets Received 1,095 Receive buffers sz 1,024 Bad packets received 0 IO buffers 3 Watchdog terminations 0 IO buffer size 1,024 The Server status screen is a diagnostic tool that can be used to troubleshoot problems within the network and to optimize the speed at that the network runs. All the items listed on this screen are configured in other places; this screen only indicates what the current settings are. The Server status screen has some distinguishing features. The right side of the screen contains the statistics set in the Server configuration menu. These statistics are listed in three columns. The CFG column shows how the items are currently configured, the PEAK column shows how close to the configured setting each item has gotten since the network was started. The CURR setting shows the current status of each item. The PEAK and CURR numbers are dynamic, meaning any changes will immediately show on the screen. The left hand column contains information that is set when the machine is started and has cumulative information that keeps track of the total performance of the network since the network was started. SERVER UP-TIME This indicates how long the server has been running continuously since the network was loaded. Every time the network is restarted, the Server up-time figure is reset to zero. SERVER VERSION This displays the version of NetWare Lite that is currently running. The current version of NetWare Lite available is version 1.1. SERVER ADDRESS The server address is the node address of the network board that is installed in the server. The node address is a unique number assigned to the network board that distinguishes it from other boards on the network. This number may be set with software settings or switches on the board, or it may be built into the board. NETWORK AUDITING Network auditing has a "yes" or "no" indicator displaying whether the auditing feature has been enabled. The audit log lists such activities as logins, logouts, and backup of network management files. The date and username associated with each activity appear in the log. Network auditing can be turned on and off within the net utility in the Supervise the Network option. SHARE RUNNING This screen lets you know whether SHARE.EXE has been loaded. SHARE is the DOS file used to control file locking and file sharing. SHARE is a necessary program to load when using a peer-to-peer network because it enables programs to be run concurrently and ensures proper file locking so two people do not access the same data file at the same time. SERVER MEMORY SIZE If this percentage is low, an increase of the number of IO buffers may speed up your system. SERVER-BUSY PACKETS This statistic informs the user of the number of times that a client resends a request to a server when the server was too busy to handle the request. A large number of server-busy packets (more than 1 percent) usually indicates that the server is not fast enough to handle the volume of requests that are being made. A third-party disk caching program will improve the speed of the server and will reduce the number of server-busy packets. Another event that will cause the server-busy packets to increase at an abnormal rate is when the server is formatting a floppy disk. DOS is not available during a disk format to service requests coming in from clients. As a result, many retries will be made from client machines causing the number of server-busy packets to increase. SERVER CACHE HITS Percentage of requests serviced by the cache rather than accessing DOS. The cache will not be used for smaller files. If the server can service the incoming packet in one request, it will not use the cache. Usually files under 1024 bytes will not take advantage of the cache. The cache is directly related to the number and size of the IO buffers. If the percentage is low, an increase of the number of IO buffers may speed up the process. PACKETS RECEIVED The total number of packets received by the server. BAD PACKETS RECEIVED This number represents the number of times the server got a packet from the IPXODI that was damaged, possibly with a corrupt IPXODI header. Bad packets should rarely be received. If this number is non-zero, there could be a hardware problem, possibly the network board. WATCHDOG TERMINATIONS NetWare Lite uses a process called the watchdog to verify whether a connection exists. In a server's connection table there is a timer associated with each connection. Whenever a packet is received from a client, the timer associated with that client is reset to zero. If no packets are received within five minutes, the server calls that computer by sending out a packet asking for a response. If the client computer responds, the server will reset the timer associated with that connection. If the computer does not answer within five minutes, the server will call again once a minute for ten more minutes. If no response is received from the missing computer, the server will remove the machine from the connection table and the client will have to reestablish a connection to access the server. The process of eliminating missing connections using watchdog terminations is used to keep the connection table in each server as clean as possible. Each client machine has a connection table where the computer keeps track of how many other machines it is connected to. Unlike the server, the client's connection table is not monitored by a watchdog and will not be disconnected if the connection is lost. When a connection is lost with a server, the client machine will return the message "General failure reading device NWLite" and will prompt the user to abort, retry, or fail every time an operation that accesses the server is attempted while the server is down. When the connection is first reestablished, the user will receive the same error, but pressing for retry will reestablish the connection and carry out the requested operation. TROUBLE SHOOTING WITH THE SERVER STATUS SCREEN The right-hand columns of the Server status screen contain the current configuration, the peak level, and the current statistics of the items configured in the Server configuration menu with the exception of Open files. The CFG (configured) setting of Open files is the number of files that are defined in the CONFIG.SYS file that DOS uses to configure the system when booting the computer. The rest of the items have been covered previously in this document. A network administrator may use the three columns of information to fine tune the network. The items in the right hand column affect the size of the network in memory and the way the network operates. By monitoring the figures in the PEAK and CURR columns and comparing those with the number currently configured in the CFG column, a network administrator may avoid wasting valuable memory and verify that the network has plenty of room to operate. If the highest recorded value for any of these attributes approaches 80 percent of the configured setting, a network administrator should consider increasing the configured setting. Three figures need to be regularly monitored. These three are the number of connections, client tasks, and open files. As the highest values for these statistics approach or equal the corresponding configuration settings, unpredictable results can occur. These results can be anything from file locking problems, to data corruption, to the server crashing and locking the entire network. By monitoring the statistics on the Server Status Screen, a network administrator can isolate problems before they become critical, avoid wasting valuable memory space that can be better used by other applications, and tune the network so that it will operate at the most optimal level. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------