Optimise NTFS performance in Windows servers

By Derek Schauland, TechRepublic, 4 March, 2003 14:40

When compressing folders and files, keep the following in mind:

A compressed file will remain compressed if it is moved to an uncompressed folder on an NTFS drive.
A compressed file will be uncompressed when it is copied to an uncompressed folder on an NTFS drive.
A compressed file will be uncompressed if it is placed on a non-NTFS drive.

When a file is moved, it's copied to its new location and then deleted from the original location, keeping its original attributes. However, when the same file is copied from one location to another, the copied file inherits the properties of the new parent location. Also, compression of this type isn't compatible with non-NTFS volumes. If a compressed file is moved to a FAT volume, it will be stored uncompressed. Naming schemes for files and folders NTFS supports long filenames and directory names, up to 255 characters in length. This allows you to keep detailed filenames and know exactly what the file(s) are used for. It's a great feature, especially after the 8.3 naming requirements of DOS days. However, long filenames can decrease the performance of the NTFS file system. To counter this performance degradation, you can standardise the length of all files and directories stored on your servers. For example, suppose you have a hard disk with several files saved on it -- 15,000 files perhaps. All the filenames are 20 to 35 characters long, and the first 10 characters of each file are the same. This can cause a bottleneck when listing the volume contents because NTFS maintains a list of DOS-style 8.3 versions of the long filenames to maintain backward compatibility with DOS. To avoid this, you could group things by directory and then allow filenames to be anything the owner prefers. This lets you create directories for all the departments -- and possibly all the users within those departments -- and minimise the performance hit on NTFS by keeping file and folder names within the departments as unique as possible. You also gain some commonality in how files and folders are stored on the server while still allowing users to control their file and folder names. You can also disable the DOS 8.3 compatibility by using the FSUTIL Resource Kit utility. Open a command prompt, type fsutil behavior set disable8dot3, and press [Enter]. After you restart your server, it will no longer support the DOS 8.3 aliases. You should do this only if you don't have any older DOS or Windows 3.x workstations on your network. Also, make sure that your applications don't require the 8.3 file format. Folder structure Although you've probably never given much thought to the way you organise folders on your server, folder structure can have an impact on your server's speed. If you have many users who use applications that open, close, or modify several data files at the same time, Microsoft recommends against locating all of these files in the same folder. Instead, if possible, split the files into multiple folders. If you can't do that, Microsoft recommends disabling the 8.3 file-naming scheme. One final note These NTFS features and customisations should help you tweak your network to run at an optimal level. Although all these features can improve the performance of systems on your network, it's still best to use trial and error to determine which of them work best in your environment. NTFS offers many ways to improve performance and also helps you keep the environment secure. Although no system is perfect, NTFS seems to get better with age. The features that are here today will probably be enhanced in the future.

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Talkback

Cluster size discussion in this articlue is absolute BS!!!

via Facebook 31 October, 2004 02:50

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