We just upgraded our Windows NT to Windows 2000 servers with IIS 5.0
running ASP. We notice that the total CPU of the dual processors
server is always capped at 50%. In NT, we managed to get up to 80-100%
of the CPU time.

Why is it so and how can we tune it?

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Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 06 Sep 2002 07:23 PDT

Hi kc_at_work

So we don't spend time digging up info on
things you have tried, would you mind telling
us what diagnostics and tests you have performed
up to now? Have you set processor affinity?
Is it possible to go back to the NT4 and try
it? Is this Windows 2000 installed OVER NT4? {please don't say yes}
Are you certain the hardware abstraction layer
(HAL) has been updated correctly?
[ http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q234558& ]

What programs and processes are running? Which
are the "top dogs and CPU hogs?

Can you download a program such as this and
provide a command line dump of processes?

PSList Copyright © 1999-2002 Mark Russinovich
[ http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pslist.shtml ]


Have you done any web searches so far? We don't
want to give you a link you have seen already.


thanks
-AI

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Clarification of Question by kc_at_work-ga on 08 Sep 2002 19:17 PDT

We Use Performance Monitor:
Processor -> Processor Time % (Total).

We have dual PIII Processor and the total of the processor time is
clipped nicely at 50% when the server processing an asp (IIS 5.0)
request and doing computing intensive routines.

>Have you set processor affinity? 
I believe not. Which one? And what is the purpose of this? Any side
effect?

>Is it possible to go back to the NT4 and try it? 
We see no reason to do so. We have other NT4 servers and CPU do go up
to above 80%.

>Is this Windows 2000 installed OVER NT4? {please don't say yes} 
No.

>Are you certain the hardware abstraction layer(HAL) has been updated
correctly? [ http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q234558&
]
I believe this is not necessary since W2K was installed when the
server has already had two processors. This is not an upgrade from one
to two processors.

Quote from KB:
NOTE: You can use this procedure only to upgrade from a
single-processor HAL to a multiple-processor HAL. If you use this
procedure to change from a standard HAL to an ACPI HAL (for example,
after a BIOS upgrade) or vice-versa, unexpected results may occur,
including an inability to boot the computer.

>What programs and processes are running?
IIS 5.0 (asp)

>Which are the "top dogs and CPU hogs? 
Asp.dll but this is not hogs or top dogs. CPU is usually quite. Only
when certain asp is processed, the CPU can only go to 50%.

>Can you download a program such as this and provide a command line
dump of processes? PSList Copyright © 1999-2002 Mark Russinovich
[ http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pslist.shtml ] 

It won’t be useful at all. The one that it is running would be
asp.dll.

>Have you done any web searches so far? We don't want to give you a
link you have seen already.
Yes, tons of it.

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Request for Question Clarification by haversian-ga on 05 Oct 2002 00:47 PDT

What service pack are you running?  SP5 or higher?

Are you running a single active server page which is consuming all
your CPU resources?  Typically when processor load is capped at 50% on
a dual CPU machine, it means an application which is not
multiprocessor aware is running and consuming all resources on only
one processor because the application has not been written to use
multiple threads.