Scalable Networking Pack is Installed

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2010-02-24

The Microsoft Exchange Server Analyzer Tool performs the following operations:

• It determines whether the computer is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

• It parses the following registry path to determine whether the EnableTCPChimney, EnableTCPA, or EnableRSS registry keys exist and are set to a value other than 0 on an Exchange Server that is running Windows Server 2003.

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

• It examines the version of the Tcpip.sys file in the %WINDIR%\System32\drivers directory to determine whether Tcpip.sys is between version 5.2.3790.2670 and version 5.2.3790.4331.

The presence of the EnableTCPChimney, EnableTCPA, or EnableRSS registry keys indicates that the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack is installed on the server. The Scalable Networking Pack includes support for TCP Chimney Offload, Receive-side Scaling, and NetDMA features.

A value other than 0 for any of the EnableTCPChimney, EnableTCPA, or EnableRSS registry keys means that the specific feature is enabled.

If the Exchange Server Analyzer determines that the following conditions are both true, the Exchange Server Analyzer displays a warning:

• The Scalable Networking Pack is installed on an Exchange Server that is running Windows Server 2003, and any one of the Scalable Networking Pack features is enabled.

• The Tcpip.sys file version is not between versions 5.2.3790.2670 and 5.2.3790.4331.

As a best practice, we recommend that you verify that the latest Network Interface Card (NIC), storport.sys, and Storage Area Network (SAN) drivers have been installed on Exchange servers that have the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack installed to avoid possible issues with Exchange Server performance.