User Guide

Managing the NetWare Server 85
Server Operating System Administration Guide
103-000148-001
August 30, 2001
Novell Confidential
Manual 99a38 July 17, 2001
 Server Up Time. Amount of time that has elapsed since the server was
most recently started. If your server has Auto Restart enabled, use this
field to determine whether your server has abended and restarted. You can
also use this information to detect power failures or intruders who bring
down the server.
 Online Processors. Number of enabled and online processors. The
Platform Support Module (PSM), loaded from STARTUP.NCF, enables
NetWare to use secondary processors in a multiprocessing platform. The
default is to autostart all processors.
 Total Cache Buffers. How many cache buffers are currently available for
file caching. This number decreases as you load NLM programs.
Because file caching has a dramatic impact on server performance, you
want this number to be as high as possible.
 Dirty Cache Buffers. How many buffers contain data which has been
changed but not yet written to disk.
Monitor this number to see whether it is increasing. If it is, you might
have a bottleneck in the Traditional file system.
 Long Term Cache Hits. The cumulative percentage of requests for disk
blocks that were already in cache for the traditional file system. (When
the requested data is already in memory, disk reads don’t need to be
made.)
Use this percentage to assess overall disk cache utilization if you are
using the traditional file system. If this value falls below 90%, the disk
thrashes and server performance degrades. The solution is to install more
physical memory (RAM).
 Current Disk Requests. How many read requests are pending.
Monitor this number to see whether it is increasing. If it is, a slow hard
disk might be your bottleneck.
 Packet Receive Buffers. How much memory is allocated for holding
client requests while the server processes them. The server allocates more
packet receive buffers as needed (within minimum and maximum
values). Buffer size depends on the network adapter.
This number is the result of the interaction of three configurable
parameters. Monitor the current value to ensure that it does not reach the
maximum value.