Windows Server 2008 Tweaks / Optimizations

[stronius]

Hey Guys, I've got a Q9300 with 4gb of RAM running on Windows Server 2008 and I'm using it to host CounterStrike Source match servers for my gaming community so I'm trying to opitmize it for best performance. I've been playing around with some of the tcp settings (autotuninglevel, rss, ctcp, etc..), and the biggest thing was setting autotuninglevel properly. I was also playing around with the transmit/receive buffer size under configure connection. Now I've already ensured the disk setting is high performance, the power setting is high performance, the page file is set for best performance, and visual settings are set for best performance. I'm just looking for any insight into any of these areas or other tweaks / optimizations I may not know of. It'd be a huge help if anyone can give me a few pointers, even as to setting affinity. Anything to boost my performance would be great.

Thanks.

[Doggie52]

Tweaking the registry is a major part of Windows performance, have a look here: http://cpnclan.home.comcast.net/~cpnclan/guide.html !

[stronius]

I read through that article, thanks a bunch, only issue is most of those are for Windows XP, does anyone have any insight as to whether they can be used in Windows Server 2008. Below I've listed what settings / optimizations I'm currently using, any further input would be awesome.
Thanks Guys.

-Enabled High Disk Performance in Devmgmt.msc
-Enabled High Performance Power Usage
-Optimized the Paging File
-Setup visual settings for best performance
-Updated all Drivers
-Daily Defrag
-Disabled Un-necessary services (To my knowledge)

-TCP OPTIMIZATIONS

C:\>netsh int tcp show global
Querying active state...

TCP Global Parameters
----------------------------------------------
Receive-Side Scaling State : enabled
Chimney Offload State : enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level : disabled
Add-On Congestion Control Provider : ctcp
ECN Capability : disabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps : disabled

** I've also set transmit buffer size to 384 and receive to 512.

-REGISTRY TWEAKS
MTU = 1500
EnableTCPA=1


Anything I'm missing or may have done wrong?

[stronius]

come on, noone has any insight? I'm even willing to toss a few $ someones way to help me optimize my cfgs

[ultramoo]

I am going to run 2 x Windows 2008 servers tonight for Counter Strike Source. This will be the first time using Windows 2008 so I will first see how it will run without any tweaks. Once I get a better feel for it we can bounce ideas around

[stronius]

I did a lot of reading / testing and research, and considering CSS is based on UDP, the TCP/IP settings will have no effect on your game server's, aside from RCON and any web based control panel you may have. However, I was suggested to test disabling Interrupt Moderation & Flow Control, so I did and found a big improvement after disabling both features. I also set Transmit & Receive buffers to 512, and set affinity to one core. Running incredible now. Feel free to share any other tips you may have figured out.

[ComputerHelper]

Where did you find the Moderation & Flow Control options?

[stronius]

As long as you have an Intel based NIC, and the Intel PROSet drivers for it, then you right click on your connection, select properties, then select configure in the top right corner. Under the advanced tab, you will see Interrupt Moderation, which you can disable, then you can select "Performance" from that same selection list, and you'll be given the option to click properties, and Flow Control can be disabled in there. You can also set buffer size in there, default is 256/512, but I found best performance at 512 / 512.

[ComputerHelper]

Thanks alot, now I need to find out if the NIC is intel -.-


xD

[ComputerHelper]

I just hit the jack pot!

Check this out

Motherload

[rgshadow]

Wow. What ever you do not run that bat file remotely, it disables remote desktop..

[stronius]

Or don't run a .bat until you open in notepad and see what exactly it does! haha

[Spartanfrog]

Just curious did anyone here see an improvement when changing registry values? I never noticed a thing.

[stronius]

Well I'm not one to fool around with the registry, especially considering the article he posted deals with XP/Server 2003 and I use Server 2008. But after looking at them, I can't imagine much change.

[Drocona]

I can assure you that editing the registry like said in that off site tutorial does NOT give much gain at all.

It's the disabling of 30+ useless services that gives a real performance boost, just to compare, my WinXP pro installs on my servers at home run 80MB of memory (instead of 150+ standard) and are FAST!