Configuring a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server to run InfoSphere Information Server

Technote (troubleshooting) Problem(Abstract)

Tune the server engine and configure the parallel engine for Microsoft Windows 2003 Server.

Resolving the problem

Tuning the server engine for large numbers of users or jobs (Windows Server 2003) For systems that have large numbers of simultaneously connected users or large numbers of simultaneously running jobs, you can configure the server engine to support the number of open files, lock table entries, and locks that are necessary for correct engine operation. To tune the engine, modify settings in the uvconfig file. Before you begin

Back up the uvconfig file. By default, this file is located in the following directory: C:\IBM\InformationServer\Server\DSEngine. Stop all IBM InfoSphere DataStage jobs and ask all users to log out of InfoSphere DataStage.

About this task For new installations of IBM InfoSphere Information Server, change the settings described in this task if you are configuring production systems that have large numbers of simultaneously connected users or large numbers of simultaneously running jobs. For existing installations, change these settings if you encounter resource problems while running InfoSphere DataStage jobs. Procedure 1. Perform the following steps to verify that no InfoSphere DataStage jobs or osh.exe processes are running on the server and that no connections are active: a. From the Microsoft Windows Task Manager, click the Processes tab, and then click the Image Name column to sort the process list by name. b. Verify that the Show processes from all users check box is selected. c. In the list of processes, verify that the following processes are not running: uvsh.exe and osh.exe. If these processes are not running, there are no InfoSphere DataStage

jobs running on the server. d. In the list of processes, verify that the following processes are not running: dsapi_server.exe and dsapi_slave.exe. If these processes are not running, there are no active InfoSphere DataStage connections. 2. Stop the InfoSphere Information Server engine. 3. Use a text editor to edit the uvconfig file. By default, this file is located in the following directory: C:\IBM\InformationServer\Server\DSEngine. Specify the following settings MFILES 200 T30FILES 300 RLTABSZ 300 MAXRLOCK 299 4. Save the uvconfig file. Make sure that you do not save the file with a .txt extension. The uvconfig file cannot have a file extension. 5. From the Windows command prompt, change to the directory that contains the uvconfig file. For example, change to the following directory: C:\IBM\InformationServer\Server\DSEngine 6. Issue the following command to regenerate the binary uvconfig file: bin\uvregen.exe 7. Restart the InfoSphere Information Server engine. Configuring the parallel engine (Windows Server 2003) You can configure the parallel engine for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 32-bit editions, by editing the Windows Registry and by changing system settings that control available memory. The Windows Registry includes keys that control desktop heap size, swap area size, the number of available TCP connections, and memory management. About this task Perform these steps to configure the parallel engine on high-capacity production systems.

Configuring the Windows Registry: Enabling auto-tuning for paged pool size If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, enable auto-tuning for the paged pool size. Enabling auto-tuning ensures that sufficient memory is available for paged pools. Configuring the Windows Registry: Enabling auto-tuning for system page size If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, enable auto-tuning for the system page size. Enabling auto-tuning ensures that sufficient memory is available for page tables and page table entries. Configuring the Windows registry: Setting the threshold for de-committing memory If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, set the threshold for de-committing

memory. On computers that have 1 GB or more of RAM, setting the threshold to the suggested value improves memory management. Configuring the Windows registry: Increasing the noninteractive desktop heap size If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, increase the noninteractive desktop heap size to improve performance. Configuring the Windows registry: Specifying TCP/IP settings If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, specify settings for TCP/IP in the Windows Registry to ensure that the required number of parallel processes can run concurrently. Configuring Windows: Change the swap area size If the parallel engine is installed on a server that runs Microsoft Windows 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, change the size of the swap area to improve performance. Configuring Windows: Editing the boot.ini file If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, edit the boot.ini file to remove the /3GB switch and, if necessary, add the /PAE switch.

Configuring the Windows Registry: Enabling auto-tuning for paged pool size If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, enable auto-tuning for the paged pool size. Enabling auto-tuning ensures that sufficient memory is available for paged pools. Before you begin

Log in to Windows Server 2003 as the Administrator. Start the Registry Editor, and back up the Windows Registry. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), create a single backup before you make all the changes.

About this task The Windows Server 2003 kernel allocates memory in pools. These pools are known as the paged pool and the non-paged pool. Performance degradation and server instability can result if the memory for these pools is exhausted. To avoid this situation, you can enable auto-tuning at server startup by editing the PagedPoolSize registry value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management registry subkey. Procedure 1. In the Registry Editor, select the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\ Memory Management 2. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, right-click PagedPoolSize, and click Modify. 3. In the Base area, select Hexadecimal. 4. In the Value data field, specify 0 (zero). If 0 is already specified, auto-tuning is enabled, and you do not need to change this value. If you must specify a value other than 0, the value data for SystemPages must be 0. 5. Click OK. What to do next After you make changes to the Windows Registry, restart Windows to apply your changes. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), make all changes before you restart Windows. Configuring the Windows Registry: Enabling auto-tuning for system page size If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, enable auto-tuning for the system page size. Enabling auto-tuning ensures that sufficient memory is available for page tables and page table entries. Before you begin

Log in to Windows Server 2003 as the Administrator. Start the Registry Editor, and back up the Windows Registry. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), create a single backup before you make all the changes.

About this task To support virtual to physical address translation, the Windows operating system uses page tables and page table entries (PTEs). These tables reside in kernel memory. If not enough memory is allocated for the page tables, Windows might fail to create processes, threads, and I/O buffers. Because the parallel engine creates many processes to run a job, jobs will fail at startup or during run time if Windows does not have enough resources to create processes. You can enable auto-tuning at server startup by editing the SystemPages registry value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management registry subkey. Procedure 1. In the Registry Editor, select the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\ Memory Management 2. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, right-click SystemPages, and click Modify. 3. In the Base area, select Hexadecimal.

4. In the Value data field, specify 0 (zero). Typically, specifying 0 for this value provides sufficient memory. If the available PTEs are exhausted, however, you can specify the maximum value, 0XFFFFFFFF. If you must specify a value other than 0, the value data for PagedPoolSize must be 0. 5. Click OK. What to do next After you make changes to the Windows Registry, restart Windows to apply your changes. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), make all changes before you restart Windows. Configuring the Windows registry: Setting the threshold for de-committing memory If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, set the threshold for de-committing memory. On computers that have 1 GB or more of RAM, setting the threshold to the suggested value improves memory management. Before you begin

Log in to Windows Server 2003 as the Administrator. Start the Registry Editor, and back up the Windows Registry. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), create a single backup before you make all the changes.

About this task When Windows frees memory at a specific address, the memory can remain committed, or it can be de-committed and marked as reserved. You can improve memory management on computers that have 1 GB or more of RAM by editing the HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold registry value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager registry subkey. This registry value specifies the number of contiguous bytes of memory (around the address of the freed memory) above which the block of memory is decommitted. Procedure 1. In the Registry Editor, select the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager 2. Specify the value data for HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold registry value: a. If the registry value does not exist, click Edit > New > DWORD Value, and type the name of the registry value. b. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, right-click the registry value, and click Modify. c. In the Base area, select Hexadecimal. d. In the Value data field, specify 0x00040000. e. Click OK.

What to do next After you make changes to the Windows Registry, restart Windows to apply your changes. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), make all changes before you restart Windows. Configuring the Windows registry: Increasing the noninteractive desktop heap size If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, increase the noninteractive desktop heap size to improve performance. Before you begin

Log in to Windows Server 2003 as the Administrator. Start the Registry Editor, and back up the Windows Registry. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), create a single backup before you make all the changes.

About this task IBM InfoSphere DataStage processes are created in a specific desktop heap. Each process consumes a small amount of memory from the desktop heap. If you expect to run many InfoSphere DataStage jobs concurrently, increase the size of the noninteractive desktop heap to allow more processes to be created and run concurrently. You increase the size of the noninteractive desktop heap by editing the SharedSection parameter string in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems registry subkey. The SharedSection parameter string is located in the Windows registry value and uses the following format to specify heap size: SharedSection=xxxx,yyyy,zzzz Where:

xxxx specifies the maximum size of the system-wide heap (in kilobytes) yyyy specifies the size of each desktop heap zzzz specifies the size of the desktop heap that is associated with a noninteractive Windows station

If the SubSystems registry subkey does not contain an entry for Windows, follow these steps to create one: 1. From the Edit menu, select New > Expandable Value String. 2. In the Value field, enter Windows.

3. Right-click on Windows to display the Edit String dialog box. 4. Enter this string into the Value field: %SystemRoot%\system32\csrss.exe ObjectDirectory=\Windows SharedSection=1024,3072,2048 Windows=On SubSystemType=Windows ServerDll=basesrv,1 ServerDll=winsrv:UserServerDllInitialization,3 ServerDll=winsrv:ConServerDllInitialization,2 ProfileControl=Off MaxRequestThreads=16

Procedure 1. In the Registry Editor, select the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems 2. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, right-click the Windows registry value, and click Modify. 3. In the Value data field, locate the SharedSection parameter string, and change the last SharedSection parameter from 512 to 2048. For example, specify the following values for this parameter: SharedSection=1024,3072,2048 If you cannot change the size of the desktop heap to 2048, try setting the value to 1024. For example, specify the following values for this parameter: SharedSection=1024,3072,1024 4. Click OK. What to do next After you make changes to the Windows Registry, restart Windows to apply your changes. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), make all changes before you restart Windows. Configuring the Windows registry: Specifying TCP/IP settings If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, specify settings for TCP/IP in the Windows Registry to ensure that the required number of parallel processes can run concurrently. Before you begin

Log in to Windows Server 2003 as the Administrator. Start the Registry Editor, and back up the Windows Registry. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), create a single backup before you make all the changes.

About this task You specify TCP/IP settings by editing the following registry values in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters registry subkey:

MaxUserPort Specifies the maximum port number for ephemeral TCP ports. TcpNumConnections Specifies the maximum number of concurrent connections that TCP can open. This value significantly affects the number of concurrent osh.exe processes that are allowed. If the value for TcpNumConnections is too low, Windows cannot assign TCP ports to stages in parallel jobs, and the parallel jobs cannot run. These keys are not added to the registry by default. Procedure 1. In the Registry Editor, select the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters 2. Specify the following registry values: MaxUserPort and TcpNumConnections. a. If the registry value does not exist, click Edit > New > DWORD Value, and type the name of the registry value. b. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, right-click the registry value, and click Modify. c. In the Base area, select Decimal. d. In the Value data field, specify the following values:
Registry value name MaxUserPort TcpNumConnections Value data 65534 65534 Valid range 5000-65534 (decimal) 0 - 0xfffffe (65534 decimal)

e. Click OK. What to do next After you make changes to the Windows Registry, restart Windows to apply your changes. If you plan to make several changes (for example, to configure the parallel engine), make all changes before you restart Windows. Configuring Windows: Changing swap area size If the parallel engine is installed on a server that runs Microsoft Windows 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, change the size of the swap area to improve performance. Before you begin Log in to Windows Server 2003 as the Administrator. Procedure 1. Click Start > Control Panel > System. 2. In the System Properties window, click the Advanced tab. 3. In the Performance area, click Settings. 4. In the Performance Options window, select the Advanced tab. 5. In the Virtual memory area, click Change. 6. In the Virtual Memory window, specify a value for Maximum size. Set this value to be

one to one-and-a-half times that of physical memory. 7. Click Set. 8. Click OK three times, and then close the Control Panel window. What to do next After you change the size of the swap area, restart Windows to apply your changes. Configuring Windows: Editing the boot.ini file If the parallel engine is installed on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise edition, edit the boot.ini file to remove the /3GB switch and, if necessary, add the /PAE switch. Before you begin You might want to save a backup of the boot.ini file before you change the file. About this task By default, Windows reserves 2 GB of memory for the kernel and 2 GB of memory for user mode programs. When the /3GB switch is specified in the boot.ini file, 3 GB of memory is reserved for user mode programs, and the amount of kernel memory is reduced by 1 GB. This setting results in an insufficient amount of memory for the kernel. To resolve this problem, remove the /3GB switch, if present, from boot.ini file. In addition, on servers that have more than 4 GB of physical memory installed, specify the /PAE switch in the boot.ini file. The /PAE switch specifies physical address extensions that allow a 32-bit processor to access memory that is above the 4 GB limit. Procedure 1. Click Start > Control Panel > System. 2. In the System Properties window, click the Advanced tab. 3. In the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings. 4. Click Edit to edit the boot.ini file. 5. Remove the /3GB switch, if present. 6. On servers that have more than 4 GB of physical memory installed, add the /PAE switch to the boot.ini file. 7. Save and close the boot.ini file. 8. Click OK twice, and then close the Control Panel window. Results These changes are applied when you restart Windows.