While you are hard at work trying to meet a submittal deadline, the file server works against you by not pulling up the documents fast enough. Why was this thing fast when it was first installed, but now it is bogging down? (1) More people are on your the network, (2) more employees access saved files as a routine part of their job, (2) documents keep getting larger. In the end, it is usually the increased usage that affects file save/retrieval performance.

You may not need to upgrade your entire network, just the slowest part. In the case of storage, it could be as simple as the hard drives. A dedicated files server, cluster or SAN is a significant investment, so management is reluctant to replace it. Your file server could be running on 5000rpm or 7200rpm hard disk drives. However, the performance of new hard disk drives has improved over the years. Upgrading the drives could be a relatively inexpensive approach to significantly increase performance. The data can be backed up, drives replaced, and data restored.

Again considering increased usage, you may have a file server that is also functioning as a database/ERP engine. Thus the server is now accessing the hard drives for two drive-intensive uses. If the load is heavy enough, the server has to wait as it finds open processing time slots to process queries/saves, and retrieve/save the data, be it files or database records. In this case, the business is ready for a second server dedicated to storage. The business operation might need two new servers:

• One to house the database (database storage server), and
• One for file storage (document storage server).

In this example, you would end up with three servers, one of which is the original server running the database engine. In effect, the approach is to distribute the load between data access (storage) and data processing.

Any software running on the server could potentially slow it down. Some tips on minimizing their effects: (1) Run only what is required for the business operation and security, (2) schedule automatic updates and backups outside business hours, or during off-peak hours if the business is 24/7, and (3) perform any maintenance operation during off-peak hours.

There are also hardware failures that can lead to degraded performance. Bad sectors on hard disk drives may slow down a system as it constantly tries to re-map or re-write the data. It is advisable to run a disk diagnostic utility to see if that is cause. On many systems, a basic test can be run as easily as rebooting, entering the boot menu (often F12), and running the diagnostics tool.

Lastly, the problem could be the server itself. It may not have a fast enough hard drive controller to handle the load. This requires a new disk controller upgrade. There is a likelihood that the new controller is not compatible with the existing hard disks, which would then require upgrading the hard disks as well. Thus management should weigh the cost of a new system entirely against the cost of upgrading an older system.

This article is by no means a comprehensive guide, but covers some of the basic points related to storage server performance. The best advice we can give is be certain of the cause of the lag in  performance before purchasing new equipment. You will be able to deploy a solution that actually addresses the current issues, while putting in place a plan that helps address a recurrence of the problem.