Performance comparison of PC LAN file servers - an experimental study

Abstract This paper considers a comparative performance measurement study which was carried out to evaluate the file server capability of a number of PC LANs, including the 3Com 3Plus network, Novell Advanced Netware 286 system and IBM PC network, all using IBM PCAT as a server. In addition, a special server, 3Com 3Server, is also measured for comparison. In the measurement, the server is subjected to simultaneous access from a number of stations performing read/write operations with varying message sizes. The response time and throughput characteristics of the networks are determined and analysed. A comprehensive comparison is made to discuss the strength and weakness of the various network implementations. The results give impartial performance ratings from an independent source, which are useful to network consumers and implementers. The authors conclude that the performance of file server is insensitive to network technology, but depends mainly on the implementation of file server software which is apparently lagging behind the hardware advancement.