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AnswerExchange server VERY slow

  • Thursday, October 29, 2009 6:34 PMExchange server VERY slow sometimes Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    I'm not sure if my issue is hardware related, Exchange related, or general Windows server related. I've got an IBM HS21 blade (3.16 quad core, 4GB memory, 2 solid state 30GB HDDs in Raid1. This is our primary corporate mailbox server.

    In general this server doesn't "feel" as fast as it should, but sometimes (just happened), we'll get informed e-mail seems delayed and i'll login and the queues for everything, local delivery, pending submission, etc.. will all be high. This might be due to the incredibly slow performance though, during these events it took me about 7-10 minutes just to login to the server. The memory isn't maxxed out, the disk I/O isn't heavy, and the CPU usage is like 1-5%, but yet the server behaves like a 386 which is maxxed out 100%. It takes minutes for the icons on the desktop to draw and to even open system manager.

    Once i'm able to login 7-10 minutes later, it seems like running an iisreset at least clears the queue and delivers the mail in the queue to the store/mailboxes. It seems fine right now, but this could happen again at anytime for no apparent reason.

    I have no idea if this is a hardware issue (we have a lot of similar blades, this is the first with solid state drives), something with Exchange or Windows?

    This server should be fast, but in general feels like the slowest server we have at the company. 

    Any help would be appreciated.
     

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  • Thursday, October 29, 2009 8:03 PMScott Feltmann Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
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    What exchange roles are you running on the server?

    Is it all of them piled in?  How many users?

    I'd blame memory or the page file.

    Your page file should be 1.5 times larger then your physical ram.

    If that doesn't help add more memory.  I have seen performance issues in Exchange, even though memory is maxed out, regarding both situations, i.e. undersized page file or not enough memory.

    You probably want to have at least 8GB of RAM with the quad core.
    SF - MCITP:EMA, MCTS: MOSS 2007, OCS 2007, Exchange 2007 -- http://www.scottfeltmann.com
     

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