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Slow file operations accross network

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by jch

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We have 12 NT 4.0 servers in the domain. Since last week, saving office documents has been very slow, but only to the PDC, all other servers are fine. Furthermore, it appears that simple file operations accross the network are very slow. For example, from the command prompt or explorer, renaming or deleting a file, can take 20-30 seconds. If you do the same thing sitting at the server, instant results. The one difference I see in this server is the Mcafee virus engine had just been updated to the latest version, about the same time this problem started. The other servers are running an earlier engine. But uninstalling Netshield has made no change. No unusual event log messages are occuring. One final observation, this server has a higher open file count than the rest, approx 500-600 most of the day, the other servers have 50-100.

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by plg6

Sounds like a load-balance issue, especially from the last part of your question.

How many folders/files are in the document save area? I've noticed on Workstation serious speed degredation after about 1,100 files in a single folder.

Can yousplit (maybe temporarily or for testing) documents across two or three of the servers instead of just the one? WorkGroup or Department 1 on server 1, group 2 on server 2, and so on? Or, if that won't work, if you do have a lot of files in the one directory, can they be moved into multiple sub-folders? Keep fewer files per folder and I think that should help a lot.

by dbowlin

Another thing to take a quick look at is service pack levels. If you are running TCP/IP, there are some operational differences between SP5 & SP6a which may cause this problem. I had this problem, and bringing all SP's to the same level solved it.

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