User Guide

Optimizing the NetWare Server 35
Server Operating System Administration Guide
103-000148-001
August 30, 2001
Novell Confidential
Manual 99a38 July 17, 2001
Figure 2 A Well-Designed System
Note that all components in a well-designed system are within the same range
of performance. But in this case, a less than optimum component is cost
effective. The components are so closely matched that upgrading the lower-
end component a would not increase performance enough to make it worth the
cost.
Figure 3 shows a poorly designed system with an inefficient mix of low- and
high-performance components.
Figure 3 A Poorly Designed System
In this system, components f and g have performance characteristics that are
considerably inferior to components h, i, and j. With component f as the
bottleneck, components h, i, j, and even g are constrained by f so that they run
much more slowly than their designs would otherwise permit. In this system,
the bottleneck is significantly hampering the system’s performance.
This is a poorly designed system because the high-performance components
aren’t able to perform anywhere near their full potential. In fact, because of
the high-performance characteristics of h, i, and j, this system might have cost
more than the system in Figure 3. But it cannot perform as well because of the
greater disparity between its low- and high-performance components.
Lower
Performance
Higher
Performanc
e
a,b,c,d,e represent the performance capabilities
of each system component
abcde
f,g,h,i,j represent the performance capabilities
of each system component
fg hij
Lower
Performance
Higher
Performance