Analyzing Your Current System

  • Article

Analyzing your current system configuration can help you better understand how it affects overall system performance. After you have analyzed your site, you can use the information you gathered to tune and scale all areas of your site. For example, you may want to change the configuration, adjust the way the software works, or improve the hardware.

As you tune and scale your site, you may need to make changes to your current configuration. You must know the current configuration of your system in order to accurately determine the affect a change in configuration has on performance. Analysis of the baseline configuration of your system should include an assessment of the following:

  • Hardware: Inventory each computer configuration, including boards, peripherals (excluding mouse or keyboard), and network devices. Create a system diagram to show how parts are logically connected and what purpose they serve. For example, indicate whether a server is a Web server or a database server. The following figure shows an example hardware diagram.

Hardware configuration diagram

Seagate ST32272A 2.2-GB Drive Seagate ST38422A 8.6-GB Drive

Seagate ST32272A 2.2-GB Drive Seagate ST38422A 8.6-GB Drive

2 LDAP Servers
2x PII 400, 512 MB 100-MB NIC

Compaq
RAID Array 3000

SQL Server
4x Xeon 400, 512 MB 100-MB NIC
Seagate ST32272A
2.2-GB Drive

Web Servers
2xPII 400, 512 MB 2x100-MB NIC

NLB

Windows 2000

Internet

Client

NLB

NLB

100 Base T

T1 Connection

Web Servers
2xPII 400, 512 MB 2x100-MB NIC

  • Software. Describe the software used on each computer and how it interacts with software on other computers. When documenting the software installed on each computer, include the following:

    • Build numbers.

    • Logical interface between applications. For example, if an application is retrieving data from a table in a database, describe that relationship.

    • Service packs.

    • Setup options used when installing the software.

    • System settings, such as virtual memory configuration.

    In addition to describing your software configuration, create a software diagram. The following figure shows an example software diagram.

Software configuration diagram

NLB

3 Browse Servers
Internet Explorer 5.5 Windows 2000
Commerce Server 2000

2 LDAP Servers Internet Explorer 5.5 Commerce Server 2000 Windows 2000

Windows 2000
SQL Server 2000

3 Shop Servers
Internet Explorer 5.5
Windows 2000
Commerce Server 2000

Windows 2000

Internet

Client

NLB

NLB

100 Base T

T1 Connection

  • Content. Describe the content that has been added to each type of server since Commerce Server 2000 was installed. For example, you should document each file and the directory structure in which files are stored on Web servers and database servers. You should also document information, such as permission settings, for the file system, database scripts, configuration files, data files, and so on.

  • Load balancing. Describe any places where you are using Network Load Balancing (NLB). For example, have you scaled your site across multiple servers using NLB or hardware load balancing?


All rights reserved.