Since moving to Vista SP1 we are experiencing extremely slow performance on copying small files from a network share to local and it takes ages for policies to be loaded during a gpupdate. Luckily, we're still in the testing phase, but this is a very big issue non the less.

The worstations we are testing this on are: HP dc7700 (nic: Intel 82566DM) and dc7800's (nic: Intel 82566DM-2).

This is what has been tested thus far:

a. Large file copy from win2003 R2 share to local = normal performance.. 99% utilization of 100mbit

b. Small file copy from win2003 R2 share to local = almost dead... 0% to 0.25% utilization of 100mbit

c. gpupdate takes 5 minutes or more

d. Different driver versions (including latest from Intel) are not making any difference

Above tests have been run on a domain joined computer and a non-joined computer, to rule out network policies.

The workstation has been connected to both a Cisco and a 3com switch.

Without SP1 all of the above is working just fine.

Can someone with one of those HP workstations or with the same internal nic confirm that SP1 is having problems with small files on the network?

Thanks!

No one with a HP dc7700 or HP dc7800 and Vista SP1 that can give copying a bunch of small files from share to local a try?

Update of my tests:

2 different brand computers, both with Vista SP1 and connected to each other with cross cable.

The test folder is composed of almost 5GB worth of big and small files (4551 files total).

Computer 1: Sony Vaio

Computer 2: HP dc7800

Share on HP, connected with Sony Vaio:

Copy test folder from share... no issues

Write test folder to share... no issues

Share on Sony Vaio, connected with HP:

Copy test folder from share... large files copy okay, small files performance drops to near zero

Write test folder to share... no issues

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Really strange... if you download from one computer, it is basically an upload on the other computer.

So the write test when i was connected with the Sony Vaio should have given me the same result, but the problem only occur when i am working directly on the HP.

I still would really appreciate someone with a similar computer or nic to run a quick test with a batch of small files from the network.

And here is my final update:

It appears that the problem was caused by a bad ePO Agent for McAfee 8.5i Enterprise. Not the McAfee client itself, but a custom agent that our company uses.

McAfee 8.5i without the Agent seems to be performing well with every available patch level from 1 through 5.