I have a Windows 2003 Server that acts as our file server. Lately, there have been times that the response of the server is slow.
In addition to normal files, there is one large Access database and everyone’s Outlook PST files, some of which are huge. (We use POP3 email.) The reason for the PST files being on the server is for backup purposes.
That RAID array checks out as healthy, and the configuration is at the highest performance settings according to HP standards.
This is what I have found using Process Monitor and Perfmon. I have found that the On-Access Scan of McAfee Viruscan for Servers (8.5) is quite agressive with writing to the array. I’ve stopped it from scanning such things such as the large Access database, and the PST files, and the interruptions have been much less frequent due to the Disk Write Percentage going down. However, they still occur on different occasions.
I have found that if someone has a corrupted PST file, it can cause the interuptions because Outlook tries to write to the file repeatedly.
I’ve confirmed that the PST files are causing a lot of writes to the logical drive.
If you are someone who has or has had active PST files on a 2003 server, have you encountered this issue too? We have 26 users at this location.
Does anyone know the specific reasons that Microsoft does not recommend the PST files being put on a file server? (They just recommend you don’t use them that way and to get Exchange instead.) I am curious if it is because of the OS of the file server that causes the inefficient writes for the PST’s. The PST’s are fine local to the machines.
We have had some of the PST’s on a older Snapserver, which runs a native Linux OS with a web interface, and it did not have these issues.
