Cluster Bottleneck Occurs When a Large Number of Disks Are Involved

ID: Q234544

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

"High-end" computer systems (especially large FibreChannel installations) that have a large number of hard disks may experience slow response times.

CAUSE

This is because of the number of times the bus is reset. Each reset process can stop the entire bus for seconds at a time. When a large number of hard disks are involved, this time can grow to minutes.

RESOLUTION

This problem was fixed by reducing the number of bus resets performed, while maintaining the requirement of finding the correct disk device when needed.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

The latest service pack is also available at the following Internet location:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/servicepacks/

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT 4.0. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5.

Additional query words:


Keywords          : nt4sp5fix 
Version           : winnt:4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: July 14, 1999