Sluggish SBS 2011 connection

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Hi,
I installed an SBS 2011 Essentials server in a company’s network, replacing the old SBS 2003 server.
All pc’s are working a bit faster with this (mostly) file-server, except one pc.
When I replace the connection of the f: to the same map on the new server the speed is 2 times slower (and even more) then it was connected to the old server. Just can’t think of a possible solution but trying to get the latest driver for the NIC.
The old server is still running so I can do the trick with the f: again, the difference is quite remarkable.
Anyone in for this?
TIA
Sjors

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Odd that it’s only one PC. Try copying a file of several MB with Robocopy to test the connection speed – Robocopy has a nice little summary after copying.
Robocopy is standard on most PCs and can be downloaded from MS if required. You need to run it from a command prompt.

Tests to run.
1. Copy from the PC to server A.
2. Copy from the PC to server B.
3. Copy from server A to the PC.
4. Copy from server B to the PC.
5. Copy from server B to server A.
This will tell you where the bottleneck is.
You can create a large test file using this command: fsutil file createnew . e.g. A 10MB file = fsutil file createnew 10MBfile.dat 10485760
You don’t need to map drives to use Robocopy, just specify the UNC, e.g. \serverC$Temp

Note: you need to delete the file from the destination before copying because Robocopy won’t replace an existing file unless it’s older.

cheers, Paul

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tnx Paul, will try that next week. just tried a remote login to that pc but it seams it can’t break the energy save. Wish I could sleep like that 😉

cheerio, Sjors

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Hi Paul, just tried as you suggested.
1. Copy from the PC to server A. 0:03
2. Copy from the PC to server B. 0:03
3. Copy from server A to the PC. 0:02
4. Copy from server B to the PC. 0:34
5. Copy from server B to server A. 0:37
6. Copy from server A to server B. 0:05

Where A is the one with SBS 2003 and
B the one with SBS 2011 Essentials

A remarkable difference, isn’t it?
And the problem must be at the SBS 2011, I gather.
Although other aren’t complaining.

Any input will be welcome of course.

TIA
Sjors

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The PC to server copies are the same speed so it’s not conclusive. Try a 100MByte file – the network is 100Mbit/s so it’s about 10 seconds to move that much data.
Perform tests 1 to 4 from the PC to be sure we are looking at data movement instigated by the PC.

cheers, Paul

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Unless you are using IPv6 make sure it is disabled.

Joe

--Joe

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tnx Joe, will look into that. But disable it on the new server or on the pc?
Paul, these are the results with a 700mb file:
from pc to server A 1:23
from pc to server B: 1:26
from server A to pc: 1:17
from server B to pc: 15:41
Now, if that isn’t conclusive 😉

Any ideas?
TIA
Sjors

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Also installed latest driver for NIC (from Intel directly): PRO/100 VE. No difference.

Sjors

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Unless you are using IPv6 disable it everywhere.

Joe

--Joe

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meaning also on the pc’s that don’t have the problem? including the server of course. Do I use the MS Fixit for that or rather through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpip6Parameters and DisabledComponents on

0xffffffff
TIA
Sjors

[/LEFT]

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I think just using the connection properties to make sure IPv6 is not bound to the connection is sufficient.

Joe

--Joe

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And you mean all pc’s in the network not just the one concerned and the server?
No restart needed?

And Paul, any other suggestions?

TIA
Sjors

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Yes, disabling IPv6 has fixed network performance issues in some cases. Start with the server that is having the issue.

Joe

--Joe

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no restart needed?
It’s a combination of 4yr old pc’s with only 100Mb Nic’s for XP and new one’s with 1000Mb and win7. And of course the server. Weird that only this oldie seems to have trouble.

Sjors

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What OS is server “B” running?

What OS is the troublesome PC running?

Joe

--Joe

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just disabled ip6 on the server
pc has no ip6
am testing with robocopy right now but as far as I can see it makes no difference at all.

Sjors

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SBS 2011 Essentials
XP Pro 32

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seems I’m not the only one:
http://forums.techarena.in/small-business-server/1299892.htm

SBS 2011 runs on 2008 R2 kernel!

sjors

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yep, 15 minutes again on robocopy for 700mb!

sjors

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tried a ping for what it’s worth: all sizes: TTL 128.
Sound on that level.
And no Novell as was the solution in the last post

Sjors

sjors

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Did you check the information in the KB article Information about the TCP features in Windows Server 2008 or any of the other suggestions mentioned in the techarena article?

Joe

--Joe

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The odd thing is: other pc’s (all HP but different series with xp pro) don’t have this problem. Thinking of changing the on-board NIC into a 1Gb PCI.

Sjors

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Was just reading that, will try it later.
I will let you know.

Sjors

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Hi,
After disabling chimney offload robocopy took 12 seconds to copy the 700mb file. Remarkably faster then the 45 formerly. On the pc one programm is a lot faster but two others still take minutes to start. Might be written in VBA or the like. Don’t really know. The other suggestions didn’t make a change.
Just disabled Windows Search on the server, but can’t do the needed restart untill tomorrow night. Will let you know of course.
Naming this thread in the newsletter of Windowssecrets didn’t attrack other sugggestions unfortunately. Would be nice though. Everyone is invited 😉
Tnx anyway.

Sjors

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Did you run robocopy on the server instead of the PC?
Does seem to be server related…..

cheers, Paul

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OK, after a restart of the server:
robocopy at server:
server to pc: 8.5 seconds
pc to server: 1 second
robocopy at pc:
server to pc: 10.40
Remarkable, isn’t it?

Sjors

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Seems like your PC is not happy requesting data from the server. To be sure it’s the server copy from another PC / server.

cheers, Paul

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Well, as far as I understand your question: I installed everything new on this new server, than copied the data from the old server to the new one. Than changed on all pc’s f: from the old server to the exact map on the new one. And just this pc has trouble with the speed. All others XP and Win7 have no trouble.
When I change the f: on this pc to the old server, speed is up again. Don’t really know what to try next.

Sjors

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You might try resetting your TCP/IP stack on the troublesome PC. See How to reset Internet Protocol.

Joe

--Joe

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Hi Joe, seems your link is to a Vista solution. For XP it’s http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314067. Don’t see anything in that to reset the TCP/IP stack. Or am I wrong?

Sjors

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The “applies to” section in the KB article has XP Pro & XP Home listed.

Joe

--Joe

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Hi Joe, didn’t notice the + in front of Applies to. Sorry. Wil try the msi.

Sjors

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OK, just the MS fixit. Restarted the pc and at first sight it helped. Program started in 15-20 secs. But the third time it took about 2 minutes to start. That’s about 50% better but not the way it should be of course.
Robocopy at the server to the pc of 700mb took 7 minutes, at the pc from the server 12 minutes.
Have to say robocopy has no stable speed in copying, most of the time you can see the percentage going up by .1%, sometimes it accelerates about .3%.
A ccleaner didn’t help.
Any clue?
Sjors

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nobody anymore?

sjors

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Sorry, I’m out of ideas. Have you scoured Technet?

Joe

--Joe

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Not really, just a search by Google but found no articles on technet for this problem.
tnx anyway
Sjors

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Was at my client’s today and noticed another pc with the same problem. The weird thing is next to it is another one, same hardware, same XP, patches etc, but that one didn’t have the problem. Both have 1Gb-nics. Getting more mistified, don’t you think?

Sjors

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Make sure the PCs and switch are set to auto negotiate. Setting Gb links to anything else is asking for problems.

cheers, Paul

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Hello I too am having performance issues with sbs2011, first noticed when running copy jobs to new server took ridiculus times.. since then there was a problem
browsing to other 2003 Server when broswsing by server name i get error Error code: 0x80070035 The network path was not found. But if i browse by ip address of FQDN it connects fine.. A few users lose connection to shares on sbs2011 server, i re -run logon script and connects again.. i restart server and all is ok for a while then it returns. At the moment i am downloading all service packs for Server 2008 R2 including sp1 then i will be applying hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2194664. Will let u know if helps.

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Sjors, hello.

Picking up on Paul’s last comment it sounds like a network bottleneck rather than server hardware/processes.

[*]Does ping and/or tracert show any unusual routes or timings from affected machines compared to good ones? (try them multiple times if the robocopy appears unstable)
[*]What do the network adpater statistics show while attempting to robocopy the large test files?

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irl_ste, if you cannot connect to the machine by name alone then you have a DNS problem.
Check the network suffix is the same on all machines – this should be set when you join the domain. To check the suffix enter this command in a Command Prompt window.
ipconfig /all
Try pinging the server by name only, the by FQDN.
Check your DNS server is set up with the correct domain suffix.

cheers, Paul

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Sorry guys, was waiting for alerts on this subject, didn’t receive any after the one from Paul T on 1-25.
After that I was out-of-business for some weeks concerning my back. All’s well again, thank you.
Except for this subject, I’m afraid. It persists and I found out it’s on another pc in this network too. Different model though but another pc, same model, in this network doesn’t seem to have the problem. It makes things more complicated to me.
irl_ste, did you get any further with a solution?
Tinto, I will try your suggestions in the near future, when I’m back at this client, will let you know.

tnx all,
Sjors

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I have been searching for a solution to what I think is a very similar situation for a while now. I have a client with an SBS 2011 Std. setup, Dell Poweredge T310, 16GB RAM, Xeon Proc., RAID1 for OS and RAID 1 for Data, replaced GB switch, new firewall/router, swapped OS installation to another physical server and the speed of the network seemed to increase while on a temporary hardware setup.

The problem is that there are random file transfer delays (in my case it’s running an .exe over the network for a network client to a set of account software packages) which results in the Windows 7 Program is not responding messages for about 45 seconds to 2 minutes.

I’m just checking since this topic of slow file sharing performance on SBS 2011/2008 R2 is all over the internet and noone seems to have much success solving it. I have done all the recommendations from Microsoft, don’t run any anti-virus on the server, and still have the problem.

Did you happen to solve your issue here?

Jeremiah

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Hi Jeremiah,
My client is happy with his new pc and Win7 but I didn’t solve the issue with XP. He couldn’t wait any longer, so I replaced the machine. There are still two other XP’s in this network, one is having the same problem (will be replaced soon I hope ) and the other one runs smoothly!
Couldn’t get a grip on it and finding many problems with this combination I told him I was not able to solve it.
Won’t help you either but nevertheless good luck.
If you’re able to find a solution please let us know.

Sjors

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