alexthg Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Hi, I'm thinking of building a dedicated file server machine for my 9 workstation computer. Right now I'm using one computer P4 3ghz, 1gb RAM, 2x200gb SATA Harddisk, Asus P4P800SE motherboard, running Windows 2000 Professional to put all the project files, texture maps, RPCs, etc. All the other workstations are just computers running 3dsmax, with no saved data/maps. Recently, as project & map files got bigger and bigger, the machine tends to be more 'problematic'. It took a minute or more (even 5 minutes) to start an RPC pluggin on the workstations. And the machine keep disconnecting when I started network rendering or distributed rendering with VRay. Yesterday, we upgraded the network to gigabit lan, but it still took minutes to load RPCs (haven't tried network rendering yet). I've checked the event log, and it's FULL with event ID 2021 "Server was unable to allocate a work item 1/2 times in the last 60 seconds". Seems like the main problem lies in the file management system. So, any suggestion on what I should do next? I'm thinking of installing Windows Server 2003 as it's better in handling large sums of files. But I' have no idea if it would solve my problem right away... If I need to build a new file server, what are the minimum hardware specs / priorities? Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Why would it be quicker to have a server distribute the maps, unless it's a faster machine? Don't know, ain't my area of expertise. You could look into a LAN storage thing, maybe in RAID 0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Knourek Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Im not sure as to why your having a slow down like that, Im thinking its probably an issue with your hardware setup or anitvirus or some other software issue. I recently buit a new file server here running an Asus A7n8x Deluxe mobo, AMD XP3200+ cpu, 1gig ram, onboard gigabit, 10 Sata hard drives configured in 5 mirror raids all running on Win XP Pro SP2 and its been working great here. One thing, with that P4 you are running, check your bios to see if you have Hyperthread disabled as Win 2K doesnt support that which there is a remote chance that could be causing a performance hit. Just a thought, -dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raterry Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 "One thing, with that P4 you are running, check your bios to see if you have Hyperthread disabled as Win 2K doesnt support that which there is a remote chance that could be causing a performance hit." Are you saying Win2K doesn't support "disabled Hyperthreading" or just Hyperthreading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Knourek Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I was saying that Win 2K doesnt support Hyperthread -dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raterry Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I was saying that Win 2K doesnt support Hyperthread -dave Actually, It does support Hyperthread. Have you ever opened Task Manager and viewed the performance monitor and seen what looks like two CPU's? I've done extensive tests to see what renders faster - Hyperthread on or Hyperthread off and for the vast majority of tasks including rendering scenes in MAX, Hyperthreading is considerably faster. FYI -=Rob By the way, I'm running a P4 3 Ghz with 2gigs RAM on a Win2K machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Knourek Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 Ah yes sorry my bad, you are right as I had Xeon on the brain which you will only get 2 cpu's rather than the 4 in Win 2K. But also I would try to disable HT in the bios anyway to see if that makes a difference. Some applications run better with HT off than on. Anyway just a thought in trying to help Harry trouble shoot his server... -dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexthg Posted August 26, 2005 Author Share Posted August 26, 2005 Thanks for all your responses! I performed some test yesterday, it seems that the error ID 2021 was triggered whenever I started the RPC plug-in (from a fresh start 3dsmax-> create->RPC). I do have a quite loooong list of external files path... and somehow the computer scans thru all this mapping list to find the RPCs library, hence burdenning the server. And when I deleted all the paths, and put only the RPC path, the RPC loads instantaneously... So I guess, the problem connected with a 'too long list of external files path' ? (a total of 569 directories). FYI, we got 31.32 gb of mapping files (jpg, tiff, etc) in 92,216 files. I don't know if this is too big or just standard... but our textures are growing with each project. Mbr, what exactly do you mean by having the server distribute the maps? By dividing the maps over several servers? David, I'll check the hyperthreading stuff by Monday as it's weekend now. I previously thought that HT will quite improve the file server performance as it's main job is 'finding this file, writing that file' all at the same time. Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckytohaveher Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 Try this: http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supercache.php or try this: http://www.superspeed.com/download/trialversions.php It's free, it works, and it rocks! JUST MAKE SURE TO LEAVE LAZYWRITE OFF = 0 You may get 30% or more improvement. Post a result if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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