Guidelines for optimizing system performance for Vusers on Windows machine

through hardware and operating system tuning.

Solution
Tuning recommendations

For brief information about supported platforms and system requirements,

please refer to LoadRunner Technical Specs/System Requirements

The following items are not mandatory; they will help you utilize your
resources to run a maximum number of Vusers on a single machine. The
hardware tips are relevant if you plan to purchase new machines for running
Vusers.

Hardware

 Processor(s): Pentium Pro 200 MHz or Pentium II 300 MHz. The

Pentium II's at 233 and 266 do not always perform for Windows NT
as well as the Pentium Pro at 200 MHz due to the Pro's larger
cache. Dual and quad processor models will probably not be worth
the extra price versus buying additional single processor models.
 Motherboard: Intel 440FX chipset or better.
 Disk Controller: Adaptec 2940UW or 3940UW PCI SCSI controller.
Avoid EIDE drives when throughput is a factor. This includes CD-
ROM drives even though they are not used in load testing. The
reason for this is that if you have an EIDE device, you will need two
drivers -- one for EIDE and one for SCSI. If you use only SCSI
devices, you only need to have one driver loaded.
 Hard Drives: Two SCSI fast and wide hard drives with rotation speeds
of 7200 rpm (at least). Quantum's Atlas II line is well respected. Put
the pagefile on the faster of the two drives. Put the WINNT directory
on the other.
 Network Interface Card: A mainstream PCI-based board like 3COM
or Intel.
 RAM: 64MB as a mininum configuration for any Windows NT system.
RAM is usually more important than processor clockspeed.
 Mouse and Keyboard: PS/2

Setup

 BIOS: Temporarily disable the serial, parallel and any IR ports. This

creates overhead for the OS. To print or use a modem, you will need
to re-enable the appropriate port.
 Hard Disk: Use FAT partitions. NTFS security slows things down a
 little bit but gives you a lot more disk space. If you have to use
NTFS, do not use compression.
 Drivers: Use the latest hardware drivers for the SCSI and NIC cards.
Most patches address performance issues. Check the
manufacturer's website.
 Defragmentation: Defragment the hard drive using Diskeeper Lite
from Executive Software (http://www.execsoft.com). It's free! For
max performance, defragment the pagefile by letting Diskeeper run
once on the drive. Next, restart your machine and boot off of a DOS
floppy. Delete pagefile.sys at the top level of the drive. Reboot.
When Windows NT loads, it will recreate the pagefile in contiguous
free space (unfragmented). This requires that your partition is FAT
and that you have a fair amount of free space.

Operating System

 For supported Windows platform, please refer to Document ID 11303 -

Which Windows platform does LoadRunner7.x supports
 Do not install the extra compnonents such as IIS.
 Never install Windows NT over an older OS like Windows 3.1, DOS, or
ESPECIALLY Windows NT 3.5x.
 Always apply the latest Service Pack for the OS.

Tuning

 Services: Stop all unnecessary services in the Services Control

Panel. For example, Alerter, Clipboard Server, Computer Browser (it
makes the lists in Network Neighborhood), Directory Replicator, FTP
Publishing Service, Messenger, Net Logon, Network DDE, Network
DDE DSDM, NT LM, Security Support Provider, Plug and Play, all
Remote Access services, RPC Locator, Schedule, Server (unless
someone needs to mount one of your shares), Spooler (for printing),
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, Telephony Service, UPS, World Wide Web
Publishing Service. To disable a service, highlight it and hit the stop
button. They will automatically be loaded when the system restarts.
 Device Drivers: Using caution, stop any unnecessary device drivers
in the Devices Control Panel such as Paldrv (WinRunner's text
recognition driver).
 Display: Do not set a screen saver to run, especially one with
OpenGL. Lower the display's resolution to 640x480 and put it in a
lower color depth (eg 256). Use a solid color for the desktop -- do
not use a pattern.
 System Boost: From the System Control Panel -> Performance Tab,
set the boost to the left-most setting (None). This tells Windows NT
to give each Vuser an even amount of processor time.
 Pagefile: Place the pagefile on a separate drive from the OS (usually
 C). Try several different size settings until you find the sweet-spot for
the pagefile size; this takes experimentation. A larger file is not
always better and a small size can cripple the operation of the OS.
Try using the recommended sizes initially and increase the file size
gradually.
 Network: Adjust the network bindings (Network Control Panel ->
Bindings tab) so that TCP/IP is at the the top. Disable all
unnecessary protocols such as Novell IPX/SPX.

Misc:

 Quit all unnecessary programs (including the Task Manager and

Performance Manager).
 If you have access to the Windows NT Resource Kit, use the C2
Security compliance tools to kill the support for OS/2 and POSIX to
conserve RAM and boost performance.
 Do not install Windows Messaging or Remote Access. Disable them if
they are installed.
 Turn off the clock display in the task bar (Start menu -> Settings ->
Taskbar).
 Copy the Vuser script to a local drive and write results to a local drive.
This prevents NIC clogging and allows you to kill the Workstation
service if required.