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Network Ignoramus Needs Advice: Hardware Upgrade?

Fern

Fern

Elite Member
I'm looking to speed things up and wanna know where is best bang for hardware upgrades.

Background info:

Small office environment. I server, 3 workstations.

OS is WinXP (Home Edition) for PC's (including server)

Application I wanna speed up is Quickbooks Premier (professional accounting program). We have some sort of network version (it's not the enterprise) with all users licensed. Link to Quickbook software product:

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/small-business-management-software.jsp

I do not know what type of network I have (e.g., peer-to-peer etc.)

I do not know if the Quickbook application needs the computing power at the workstations or the server or both.

Or, since maybe the server only holds data files (doesn't actually do computing tasks) only a large(r) amount of ram would be beneficial.

Server is an older Athlon 2500 cpu with nf7 mobo and 512 mb of ram.

NIC is 100mbps.

The workstations have/had similar HD and have been running quite slow. Resource meter shows CPU spiking at 100% occasionally. I am now upgrading them. (new cpu+mobo+ram)

Does server need newer/faster cpu or maybe just a faster NIC (like new rokstations) and more ram?

TIA

Fern
 
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I suspect upgrading the "server" would be the best choice. The Athlon XP2500 was nice 5-6 years ago but it's pretty lacking by todays standards... 512 MB of RAM is not much... chances are the hard drive is old and slow. I'd say watch Dell's website for some of those discounted server sales and pick up a low end server for $500 with a couple gigs of RAM and a dual core processor and at least one hard drive with room for more so you can put a cheap $50 500 gig hard drive in it to store data. It's nice to have a warranty on server hardware.

Of course you could confirm that this is the problem by running some resource monitoring on the server and have the users make note of the time they exerpience problems if it's intermittent.

I seriously doubt Quickbooks is passing enough data for 3 machines to saturate the 100 Mbit NIC on the server.
 
Understanding how the app works is crucial here. And poor performance of any kind the cabling needs to be checked out first along with any duplex mismatches.
 
First decision is whether to stay peer-to-peer or go with real server.

I.e., a computer running Windows 2008 SBS.

For 3 Workstations you usually do not need real server, unless you have to run a specific application that needs real server ot performs better under it.

If yu do need real server you should investigate a Windows 2008 SBS installation.

Otherwise stick with peer-to-peer.

Once a decision is made you would have to follow with hardware that is the best for the Topology chosen and that work well with your Software.

In any case it would be a good idea to use the opprtunity and upgrade the network's infrastructure to be Giga capable.

I can not go further cause I do not know enough about Quicken.

I think that Rebat Monger is familiar with quicken for small office environment. Hopfully he would chime in.


.
 
ChippyUK said:
Personally I'd phone the company and ask them as your upgrade is specific to their application.
Click to expand...

Yes, that sounds logical etc.

I've got their minimum covered (or will later night tonight when snap a couple more sticks of ram in the server).

Think I'll look for some type of program that will log CPU usage and how much bandwidth the NIC is using.

There used a program I used when often when oc'ing for that type of thing (Motherboard Monitor, but it was for temps and vcore. No longer exists though). I think if I logged that type data for 8 hrs during a normal workday I could get a good idea of where to focus resources for upgrades.

LMK if you guys know of any free utilities like that.

Thanks to all.

Fern
 
Fern said:
Yes, that sounds logical etc.

I've got their minimum covered (or will later night tonight when snap a couple more sticks of ram in the server).

Think I'll look for some type of program that will log CPU usage and how much bandwidth the NIC is using.

There used a program I used when often when oc'ing for that type of thing (Motherboard Monitor, but it was for temps and vcore. No longer exists though). I think if I logged that type data for 8 hrs during a normal workday I could get a good idea of where to focus resources for upgrades.

LMK if you guys know of any free utilities like that.

Thanks to all.

Fern
Click to expand...

The built in windows performance monitor can do all the logging you could ever want.

#1 I see is way to little RAM in that server
#2 Take a look at the stuff spidey mentioned. With only 3 people I highly doubt you are overloading the CPU / disk or even a 100mbps network on a server with a accounting app. If the network is running on a bunch of home crimped patch cables and cables taped to floors, you can also be seeing network errors at the physical level which will wreck app performance.

Quickbooks uses a database engine (should be something like 'quickbookdb' in service) to serve data to the clients. If your running XP or 2003 your not leaving that database engine any space to operate. This means the machine will likely be thrashing to disk. Bring the server up to at least 2GB (scavenge the DDR RAM out of another machine for testing maybe) and check performance.

You can go with a new server also if that is in the budget. My main concern for a older server is available parts. If it is a home built unit, they tend to be 100% dead after 3-5 years because parts have dried up. Dell / HP / IBM tend to keep parts on hand longer and sometimes you can pickup entire machines 5 years down the line for cheap to keep as a spare etc.

Also make sure your not running QB as 'floating host' mode. You really should install a copy on the server and allow it to serve the data rather than store the data on the server and let the connecting client 'host' the file for other clients.
 
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imagoon said:
The built in windows performance monitor can do all the logging you could ever want.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been using it. I'd like to be able to write it a log, haven't been able to figure that out yet.


imagoon said:
#1 I see is way to little RAM in that server
#2 Take a look at the stuff spidey mentioned. With only 3 people I highly doubt you are overloading the CPU / disk or even a 100mbps network on a server with a accounting app. If the network is running on a bunch of home crimped patch cables and cables taped to floors, you can also be seeing network errors at the physical level which will wreck app performance.
Click to expand...

I see the CPU and the NIC spike at 100% occasionally. But usage doesn't stay pegged that high, so I'm thinking that's normal/OK.

Cable is OK. It's a professional install. I had it done when I bought the building, the cabling is built into the wall(s)/ceiling.

IRe: Spidey's reamrks. Yeah, I figured understanding how the app would be crucial. But after searching/googling/reading for about 4 hrs I gave up.

I'll have to check in to the "duplex" thingy. Not familiar with it.

imagoon said:
Quickbooks uses a database engine (should be something like 'quickbookdb' in service) to serve data to the clients. If your running XP or 2003 your not leaving that database engine any space to operate. This means the machine will likely be thrashing to disk. Bring the server up to at least 2GB (scavenge the DDR RAM out of another machine for testing maybe) and check performance.
Click to expand...

Yep, scavenged some this weekend. It's up to 1.5GBs (only 3 mem slots)

imagoon said:
You can go with a new server also if that is in the budget. My main concern for a older server is available parts. If it is a home built unit, they tend to be 100% dead after 3-5 years because parts have dried up. Dell / HP / IBM tend to keep parts on hand longer and sometimes you can pickup entire machines 5 years down the line for cheap to keep as a spare etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a build I did some years ago.

imagoon said:
Also make sure your not running QB as 'floating host' mode. You really should install a copy on the server and allow it to serve the data rather than store the data on the server and let the connecting client 'host' the file for other clients.
Click to expand...

I'll have to check into "floating host mode", not familiar with the term. But yeah, a copy of QB is installed on the server.

Thanks (everybody),

Fern
 
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Floating host or "alternative method" is a term Intuit coined. Basically if you install quickbooks on a server and let it set up the database, it will always run from there and host via the QB service. However you can store the files on the server but have the first client that connects begin 'hosting' the database files. All other clients connect to the first client until everyone closes the program and it starts over. This of course can fail hard if the first user is a remote one. If this is enabled, there is a process to 'disable' it on a per database level.
 
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