NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT TITLE: Server Configuration and Optimization DOCUMENT ID: TID014927 DOCUMENT REVISION: A DATE: 13JUL94 ALERT STATUS: White INFORMATION TYPE: Issue README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: PERSONAL NetWare 1.0 ABSTRACT: This document gives detailed information on how to configure and optimize a Personal NetWare Server. ------------------------------------------------------------------ DISCLAIMER THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS 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 To configure a Personal NetWare Server perform one of the following, depending on your environment: DOS 1. Enter the NET ADMIN utility from the DOS prompt. A listing of the servers in the current workgroup will be displayed. 2. Select the server you want to configure and press . A screen with several options will be displayed. 3. Select the CONFIGURE option. Windows 1. Open the PERSONAL NETWARE icon. 2. Select the NETWARE view. 3. Expand the workgroup by double-clicking on the workgroup icon. 4. Highlight the server you want to configure. 5. Select the Properties option from the FILE menu. A screen with several options will be displayed. 6. Click on the CONFIGURE button. A description of each of the options that you can configure is listed below with the default settings and suggestions on how to optimize each. WORKGROUP ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS This option shows the rights assigned to a workgroup administrator to administer the selected server. The available selections are ALL and NONE. To give a user rights to administer the server, the ALL selection should be made. After you give the user ALL rights, ANY changes can be made to the server; so be careful when using this assignment. SERVER MANAGERS This option is used to assign Server Managers. A list of current managers is displayed in the box. If it is empty, then no server managers have been defined. To define a server manager, press the ADD button. To delete a server manager, highlight the server manager name in the list and press the DELETE button. You will then be prompted before deletion to confirm that you really want to delete this manager. To change the status of an existing server manager, highlight the name and press the MODIFY button. AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION This option gives you three preset selections on how much memory SERVER.EXE will take. Before choosing one of the options you must select ADVANCED SETTINGS and set the number of connections for the server. The amount of memory taken is dependent on the number of connections you select. Balanced The balanced option will balance memory usage and performance evenly depending on the number of connections selected in advanced settings. Max Performance The maximum performance option will set the server to run at its peak without regard to the size of SERVER.EXE in memory. This option should be used in those instances where the server is dedicated or the network needs to run at maximum speed and performance. This option requires the most amount of conventional memory to load SERVER.EXE. Min Memory The minimum memory option will set the server to run with the least amount of memory possible for the number of connections selected. If the server is low on memory or if no memory manager is being loaded, this option should be used. ADVANCED SETTINGS This option is used to make detailed setting changes for SERVER.EXE. The following nine (9) selections refer to the options displayed on the Advanced Settings screen. Shared Directories/Shared Printers These two settings are used to set the number of shared directories and printers available on a given server. The numbers selected represent the maximum number supported by the server. Set these numbers to the lowest numbers of shared directories and printers that you will be creating on the server. Connections This sets the number of connections allowed for the selected server. The recommended number of connections is one per physical machine that will be connecting to the server, plus two additional as a buffer. The buffer is recommended in case a user reboots a machine and the connection is not released immediately, then that user can still connect to the server. Client Tasks This is the number of client tasks that are configured for the server. Some general rules for client tasks include: (A) They should be set to AT LEAST 2 client tasks per connection. (B) For networks where the clients run standard DOS applications and do not multi-task or task-switch, you probably won't have to set more than 5 client tasks per connection. (C) For networks supporting large database programs or running Windows or Windows applications over a network, you may need to set client tasks as high as 10 or more per connection. Directory Buffers This sets the amount of buffer space used to store information for directory calls that are being received from the clients on the network. Print Buffer Size This sets the amount of memory used to store print jobs before they are sent to the printer. Each job is held in a queue on the server until it is released to the printer for printing. These buffers are used to store the print jobs between the queue and the printer. You can save memory by setting this to 512 (the lowest allowed setting). If you do not share printers on this server, then the Shared Printers setting should be set to zero. In that case, the printer codes will not load when SERVER.EXE is loaded on the machine, and the Print Buffer Size parameter will be disregarded. No Of Receive Buffers / Receive Buffer Size Receive buffers are used to receive and send client requests. This may include mapping a drive, closing a file, reading data from a file, or other requests. The number of receive buffers is the total number of buffers available for these requests. Typically, only one buffer is allocated per client connection. Allocating more buffers than expected connections wastes memory. The receive buffer size is the amount of memory used for the buffers. If you specify a receive buffer size larger than what is supported by the network board, this value will automatically adjust to the maximum size supported by the board when SERVER.EXE loads. A warning message will be displayed if this occurs. Number Of IO Buffers / IO Buffers Size Multiplier An I/O buffer is used as a temporary storage area to store read/write data from a file. These buffers have the best performance when sequential reads and writes are performed. The number of IO buffers is the actual number of buffers allocated in memory. The IO buffer size multiplier is the size, in kilobytes, of each IO buffer. To determine the total amount of additional memory required to use IO buffering, multiply the number of IO buffers by the IO buffer size multiplier. For example, if you have the number of IO buffers set at 2 and the IO buffer size multiplier set at 4, then you would have two IO buffers that are 4096 (4 x 1024) in size. Total space required for the two buffers would be 8192 bytes (4096 + 4096). If you have an external cache program loaded, it is recommended to set the number of IO buffers to zero. An external cache usually has a much higher performance of caching due to size and specific purpose. Service Extensions This sets the number of slots available for TSRs that are loaded on the server. This option is planned for use in future versions of Personal NetWare and is not currently being used in version 1.0 except in OEM versions. Use CONFIG.SYS Open Files / Number Of Open Files This setting specifies what file handle table SERVER.EXE will use. Applications running on the server always use file maximums from the FILES= line in the CONFIG.SYS file. If you place a check mark in the option to use CONFIG.SYS open files, then the SERVER.EXE file will use the number that is specified with the FILES= statement also. The maximum number of open files you can set with the CONFIG.SYS option is 255. If you have a need for more open files on the server to support client requests, deselect the option to use CONFIG.SYS and enter a number in the NUMBER OF OPEN FILES option. The maximum for this option is 1000 per server. This option also requires additional memory for SERVER.EXE to load. FUTURE SERVER MEMORY SIZE This option displays how much memory SERVER.EXE will require when loaded at the current settings. This number is dynamic and will change as modifications are made to the server configuration. LOADABLE MODULES Use this option to select which modules to load for SERVER.EXE. These modules correspond to modules internal to SERVER.EXE itself and not to the VLM's (virtual loadable modules). To specify which modules are to be loaded the next time that SERVER.EXE is loaded, use the checkboxes in the FUTURE column. If you are low on memory, you might prefer to not load one or more of the modules. The following descriptions correspond with the options under this menu. File Sharing If you are going to share files from this server, choose to load this module. If you are going to be a print server only, deselect this option and SERVER.EXE will require less memory. Print Sharing If you are going to share a printer on this server, choose to load this module. If you are not going to share a printer, deselect this option and the code for sharing printers will not load, therefore SERVER.EXE will require less memory. Security If users are going to have rights other than ALL assigned for resources, choose to load this module. This module controls the rights users have to the resources they are using. It also allows you to specify users that have local access to the server. This should ALWAYS be turned on for security purposes on the network. Full Authentication / Local Authentication If the FULL AUTHENTICATION module is loaded, then the system checks the passwords on accounts when users login. If this module is not loaded, no user is prompted for a password during LOGIN. If the LOCAL AUTHENTICATION is loaded, the users are allowed to login locally only, and cannot access resources across the network, and remote login is not allowed. The LOCAL AUTHENTICATION is for future versions of Personal NetWare, therefore, FULL AUTHENTICATION should ALWAYS be checked in this version. Pop-Up Screen If this module is loaded, Personal NetWare will display a pop-up box when it detects a problem on the printer and during a reboot of the computer. To turn these off, do not load this module. Reporting If you do not want the audit and error log features of Personal NetWare for this server, do not load this module. Diagnostics This module controls response to diagnostic calls. If this module is not loaded, the server does not respond to calls from the diagnostic programs. Console This module allows you to see what files users have open on the server. If this module is not loaded, you cannot run NET CONSOLE and such information is not available. Salvage This module allows you to recover files deleted across the network while the DELWATCH TSR is loaded at the server. Load this module only if you are using NOVELL DOS 7 on this computer and are loading DELWATCH. For more information on DELWATCH, refer to the description in Chapter 8, "Command Reference", of the Novell Dos 7 documentation, or DOSBOOK. _Verified by customer _Verified by Novell ---------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ----------------------------------------------------------------