MS Internet Information Server Windows NT AlphaServer 4x00 DIGITAL

This document, "DIGITAL HiTest Notes," provides an overview and detailed technical information about the interoperability test results for the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) Windows NT AlphaServer 4x00 HiTest Suite. The primary goal of a HiTest Suite is to offer pre-qualified, reliable, and high-performance system configurations for specific customer solutions.

This particular HiTest Suite focuses on medium to high-end MS Internet Information Server users, supporting AlphaServer 4000/4100 systems with 400 MHz ALPHA processors running Windows NT Server and MS IIS. The document outlines the tested hardware, software, and firmware components, including a range of AlphaServer base systems, memory, storage (disks, RAID controllers), network adapters, and monitors. It also details the required software, such as Windows NT Server 4.0 (with Service Pack 3) and MS IIS 3.0 (with Service Pack 1), and components for an optional System Management Station.

The document provides comprehensive guidance on system installation and setup, covering hardware installation, firmware upgrades (SRM and AlphaBIOS), disk storage configuration (including RAID arrays), and operating system and application deployment.

Interoperability testing was successfully performed over 40 hours in both minimum and maximum system configurations. The test environment included an IIS server (AlphaServer 4100) and multiple Intel-based client systems running Webstone (a WWW benchmark tool) to generate continuous web page accesses. Additional activities included Windows NT Backup for data verification and ad hoc file transfers. The tests confirmed that all Internet services performed as expected, serving approximately 70 million web pages without errors, and successfully backing up and restoring IIS databases.

Regarding system limits and characterization, the document notes that RAID initialization can be time-consuming (about an hour for a 4.3 GB disk) but can be sped up by initially setting the write policy to write-back. It also recommends using a dedicated 100 Mbit Fast Ethernet LAN segment with 100 Mbit network adaptors for high-performance network services. Notably, no problems were encountered during the testing of hardware, operating system, or application components. Appendix A offers detailed hardware configuration diagrams and tables.