Terminal Server Performance

[OS360_ITMAN]

Good Day to all

I have a terminal server running 180 connections currently, of these 150 are
low end connections only using a web application and with them on the system
is humming at a mere 10% CPU usage, but once I load my other 30 power users
with Email, and office then the usage rises to 70% CPU Usage.

Most of the CPU usage is used by Outlook as they have PST which are 2GB's
and more.

The worst response on the power user session is with Email very slow at times.

I am considering installing Exchange as currently we use POP mailboxes from
our ISP.

Will this alleviate some CPU resources or will it be the same.

In essence is Exchange mail better performing than POP Mail in a terminal
server environment.

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Patrick Rouse]

RE: Terminal Server Performance

Absolutely. The RPC connections to Exchange Server hosted mailboxes has much
less overhead than the constant local reads and writes to a PST. PST are
even worse when located on a file share.

I would recommend that you install Exchange then use EXmerge or the Outlook
client to import user's PST into the Exchange Information Store. If you have
network storage space, disable PST so all user's mail is stored in the
Exchange Information Store.


Changing from POP to SMTP will also save your Internet Bandwidth, as emails
to mailtiple recipients at your company will be delivered to the exchange
server as one email, and only downloaded and stored once, as opposed to each
user downloading their own copy like they do with POP.


--
Patrick C. Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
Systems Consultant
Quest Software, Provision Networks Division
Virtual Client Solutions
http://www.provisionnetworks.com


"OS360_ITMAN" wrote:

> Good Day to all
>
> I have a terminal server running 180 connections currently, of these 150 are
> low end connections only using a web application and with them on the system
> is humming at a mere 10% CPU usage, but once I load my other 30 power users
> with Email, and office then the usage rises to 70% CPU Usage.
>
> Most of the CPU usage is used by Outlook as they have PST which are 2GB's
> and more.
>
> The worst response on the power user session is with Email very slow at times.
>
> I am considering installing Exchange as currently we use POP mailboxes from
> our ISP.
>
> Will this alleviate some CPU resources or will it be the same.
>
> In essence is Exchange mail better performing than POP Mail in a terminal
> server environment.
>
> Thanking you in advance.