SPECweb96 Issue: NT Results

SPECweb96 was the first of the SPEC products to run on NT, and there are several things that we all have learned in the process. In short: there are several steps that must be done right or the results obtained will not be in full compliance with SPEC's Run and Reporting Rules for SPECweb96.

Review and understand the information on the OSG web site, including benchmark rules, articles, and prior SPECweb submissions.

You should be using NT version 4.0 with SP3 installed. (Available from: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt40/ussp3/.)

You must also have the post-SP3 hotfix TCPIP.SYS installed. (Available from: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT40/hotfixes-postSP3/iis4-fix/. All post-SP3 fixes will be posted in SP4, so once SP4 is available just installing SP4 shold take care of having the right NT binaries.)

Changes must be made to tcpip's registry settings to ensure that there are sufficient TCP control blocks available to avoid reusing control blocks in the time-wait state. The MaxFreeTcbs parameter should be set to AT LEAST (TcpTimedWaitDelay * (maximum SPECweb ops/sec)), but it should be somewhat larger to guarantee sufficient TCBs under fluctuating loads. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q151418 for more information.

If you are using NT clients, you must be using SPECweb96 version 5.0, which fixed a timer resolution bug which significantly understated response times.

If you are using Microsoft Internet Information Server version 3.0, you must have the logging hotfix installed. Otherwise, data may be lost from the log file and the run is not compliant. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q178202 for more information. (This hotfix is being supplied upon request since version 4.0, which handles this logging properly, is already available.)

As always, if you have questions, you may contact the SPEC Office.