Windows 2000 Performance Guide

Optimization and SMP Configuration Tuning

Having identified the major issues in multiprocessor scalability and performance, it is now time to turn our attention to what can be done about them. In this section we address some of the important performance issues that developers of scalable server applications must face when confronted with multiprocessors. Our discussion here is cursory, as we cannot do this complex subject justice in this brief space. Suffice to say that building large, complicated application software for any platform is very difficult, and Windows 2000 is no exception. Hopefully, we will succeed in laying down some basic helpful guidelines.

Then, we review the steps that system administrators can take to get the most out of large, multiprocessor configurations. Unfortunately, very few applications provide tuning knobs that are useful in a multiprocessing environment beyond the ability to control the number of threads they create. Since only a multithreaded application can take advantage of multiple processors, being able to control the number of threads created by the application is something, at least. There are two important exceptions, however. There are tuning parameters to control threading, priority, and processor affinity that influence the performance of SQL Server running on a multiprocessor. We also look at a useful processor affinity setting for network interface cards. However, because most applications lack the appropriate tuning knobs, we then turn ...