NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/vmsnet/networks/desktop/pathwork/3810

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-21 | 2.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!malgudi.oar.net!news.ysu.edu!psuvm!cunyvm!rohvm1!rbyaml
Organization: Rohm and Haas Company
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 11:13:25 EST
From: Aengus Lawlor <[e-mail]>
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: vmsnet.networks.desktop.pathworks
Subject: PathWorks Performance under Windows.
Lines: 42


We recently got a new 486/50 EISA based machine to use as a PathWorks OS/2
server.  Simple benchmarks from DOS workstations showed it to be about 25%
faster than our existing 486/33 servers.  But we got a surprise when we
tried to load Windows applications from the server.  It took up to 3 times
as long to load applications off the fast server as it did off the older
slower server.  At first I suspected the new 3C509 ethernet card in the
server, and replaced it with a 3C503, and reinstalled PathWorks to make sure
that I hadn't made any mistakes.

After working with the problem, I realized that there was nothing wrong with
the server, it was just too fast for the workstation!  It was putting the
data on the wire so fast that the w/s couldn't keep up, and had to ask for a
retransmission.  I ran my tests on a 486/50 workstation, and the fast server
loaded apps faster than the slow server, as expected.

I replaced the 3C509 in my workstation with a 3C503/16 card, with shared
memory enabled, and Extra!  for Windows loaded in ~27 seconds, off the fast
server, and ~30 seconds off the slow server.  I disabled shared memory, and
now it took ~50 seconds to load off the fast server, while the slower server
still loaded in ~30 seconds.

I did try changing various PathWorks parameters on the workstation, but
they didn't seem to have a major effect on the performance. I changed the
NCP pipe quotas, and tried to set the Flow Control parameter on DNN, but
there was no obvious difference.

It looks like enabling Shared memory on our 3C503s would be a good idea,
(until fairly recently, the bottleneck always seemed to be on the VAX
end of the connection, so we've used the default settings for the 3C503,
ie shared memory disabled, but using OS/2 servers changes that). But before I
make plans to open a couple of hundred PCs, and change their jumper settings,
does anyone have any software suggestions for dealing with the problem I've
described? Pointers to good documentation on PathWorks tuning, especially
under Windows?

Aengus
--
[e-mail]                    Aengus Lawlor
[e-mail]                   (who used to be [e-mail])
"How about some of that famous Dublin wit, Barman?"
"Certainly, sir. Would that be Dry or Sparkling?"