Sanford Whiteman wrote:
The problems we've had are always to do with CPU time used by either the smtpd32.exe or smtp32.exe processes. In the last month, the server CPU usage has been averaging 93%...My experiments with PerfMon show that disc I/O is not a bottleneck at all, it is always lack of CPU resources.
CPU that high centered on those processes is probably related to network problems that are to some degree off-box and off-IMail--check the connection end-to-end, including software drivers, link negotiation, and all hardware. Also look into issues with DNS, as Len said, which can cause intense slowdowns.
It's connected to the switch via a 100Mb full-duplex connection, which is showing insignificant errors:
Port Align-Err FCS-Err Xmit-Err Rcv-Err UnderSize ----- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- --------- 2/5 - 61 1 61 0
Also haven't seen problems with any other servers on that ethernet segment or subnet.
I'm starting to wonder if it is OS-related. Perhaps drivers, as you say, since most of the CPU is used in the kernel. It wouldn't take very long to duplicate the machine on to replacement hardware with a fresh OS install. Are there still issues with Win2k3 and IMail 7? Perhaps I could upgrade the OS while I'm at it.
Also, I didn't mention this before, but prior to this issue the server had only one CPU in it. When I saw the CPU load problems, I assumed it was due to the server getting busier over time. After adding a second processor and changing the kernel to Win2k SMP, it hardly made a difference: the smtp32.exe processes simply consumed more CPU resources.
-- Jon Miles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cybah on IRC(net)
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