Network transfer speeds drop when having a domain on same server

[Swinzon]

Hello my fellow geeks all around the world!

I have a self built server, I am currently using it as a NAS, WDS and backup server for my iPhone pictures. 
And just for the fun, I want to make a home personal domain on the server. And I did that before, and that caused my transfer speeds to decrease from 115MB/s to around 30-60MB/s. 
I heard that it something with a SMB thingy or something. How can I use my server as a domain server and at the same time have my 115MB/s transfer speeds?

Thanks, and regards from Norway

[Mikensan]

You typically do not want any other service on a domain controller, not to say it isn't possible. Is this server running ESXI, or is it running straight Windows Server? Need a little more information. SMB is used by windows regardless of domain or not.

 

How are you testing the speed? iPerf or transferring a single large file or a folder? Do not use zip files or ISOs to test, use a single large movie - just for consistent results.

[Swinzon]

9 hours ago, Mikensan said:

You typically do not want any other service on a domain controller, not to say it isn't possible. Is this server running ESXI, or is it running straight Windows Server? Need a little more information. SMB is used by windows regardless of domain or not.

 

How are you testing the speed? iPerf or transferring a single large file or a folder? Do not use zip files or ISOs to test, use a single large movie - just for consistent results.

The server is running Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard.
I am testing with a 3GB video that I recorded and edited, and with the domain controller I loose speed. Without, I get the speeds I want. 

[leadeater]

By default a domain controller enforces signed and encrypted sessions/data transfers so puts a very heavy load on the CPU, this is not the default for non domain controllers.

 

The best practice option is to not use a DC as a file server, if you have enough RAM I would enable the hyper-v role and run a VM for the DC and a VM for the file server, standard edition license allows for this. If you really can't separate out the domain controller from serving files use group policy to change enforce signed setting. I forget the proper name for it but google will tell you what is is fairly quickly, you can also just look at the default domain controller GPO and it will be in that. 

[Swinzon]

3 hours ago, leadeater said:

By default a domain controller enforces signed and encrypted sessions/data transfers so puts a very heavy load on the CPU, this is not the default for non domain controllers.

 

The best practice option is to not use a DC as a file server, if you have enough RAM I would enable the hyper-v role and run a VM for the DC and a VM for the file server, standard edition license allows for this. If you really can't separate out the domain controller from serving files use group policy to change enforce signed setting. I forget the proper name for it but google will tell you what is is fairly quickly, you can also just look at the default domain controller GPO and it will be in that. 

Heh, I only got 6GB of RAM beacuse my 3rd RAM slot died.... 
But okey, it was jsut a little thought, I want to have a domain in my network but if it`s not good to do it on one server in the same OS it`s okey.  
THanks ^^

[leadeater]

17 minutes ago, Swinzon said:

Heh, I only got 6GB of RAM beacuse my 3rd RAM slot died.... 
But okey, it was jsut a little thought, I want to have a domain in my network but if it`s not good to do it on one server in the same OS it`s okey.  
THanks ^^

You could still install the Hyper-V role and just run 1 VM for the DC, 1.5GB/2GB ram is enough to make a 2012 R2 VM run perfectly fine for that role. You can just leave the existing OS doing everything you currently do. Also remember Hyper-V supports dynamic ram allocation so the VM will only use as much ram as it needs to which can be as little as 400MB-500MB.