# SBS2003 overburdened?



## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

hi guys,

I have an SBS2003 server / its a Dell poweredge with 4GB RAM and RAID 500GB mirrored configuration.

My users have been complaining of occasional sluggish behaviour over the network. (well it seems to be getting worse)

what im running:

its a PDC (Active directory obviously)
exchange 2003
a couple of small SQL databases (SAGE accounting line 200)
A vehicle tracking system (Also SQL)
An inhouse management system of clients/accounts etc...think its access
acts as a file server too.
it has symantec corporate edition anti virus
and also has backup exec 12 for SBS server

i have about 12 users and its been running fine for the past year, but end of last year and now its getting slow to open
emaIls / docs / public folders.

I have rebooted the server and switched the main switch (linksys 40 port switch) on and off.

A consistency check has never been run on the mirrored drives...because in the dell software where the manual says it should be...it simply isnt. (although the server GUI seems pretty responsive)

what should the page file be for such a setup as i have seen it pretty high...should that be set manually or system managed?
also could running processes cause this problem. Could oversized mailboxes cause this? as some mailboxes are 4 to 5 GB on the exchange server.

Im thinking about getting another switch and plugging in there to see if its a network connectivity problem.

please any tips / tools / help really appreciated...it seems like a really broad problem...that i dont know where to start.
or is there anysoftware to test if a server is exhausted?

muchly appreciated
PK


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

Any number of things could cause it to become sluggish. Look at Exchange first to see what your databases look like as far as size. If the SQL databases get hit hard you should also look at transaction logs and make sure they are getting cleaned up and truncating the databases afterward. SQL databases can get huge, especially the log file databases if they are not trucated regularly. That is a place to start.


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## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

thanks rockn...will do some research


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## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

Have you tried a defrag?


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## Jeff11214 (Dec 30, 2010)

Is it possible the sluggish issues started after a Windows update? I have seen this in SBS2003.

A huge problem with sluggish issues is caused by Java. Try uninstalling all instances of Java from your Add/Remove programs.


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## AQ78 (Mar 30, 2010)

Also check read / writes in AV, you only really need one or the other


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## geek117 (Nov 12, 2010)

Does this happen during certain times of the day? Rather, is there a specific time of the day that this sluggish behavior occurs? This can help pinpoint the problem. For example, I had a server that was slowing down network users' SQL access at 2:30pm every day, because Symantec was scheduled to update.


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## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

well a guy was in from a company that looks after our accounting package...Sage.
he said theres too many versions of sql running too many databases and this could be dangerous.

what you think?


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## geek117 (Nov 12, 2010)

I think you should look into running your Exchange server and your Accounting/Vehicle Tracking SQL on different servers. Your current server only has 4GB of RAM, and you're pushing the limits. Makes sense that its running slow. SQL likes to use as much RAM as it possibly can, unless told otherwise.


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