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Serv-U configurations cause slow performance

This article describes configurations and activities may cause a slow down in the server performance such as file transfer upload or download, navigation of the management console

First published date

10/11/2018 6:29 PM

Last published date

5/15/2025 4:53 PM

Overview


Serv-U server has a poor performance such as transferring of files and navigation of the management console. Usually what happens are:
 
  • Clicking of page in the management takes around 1-3 seconds or more, and sometimes it freezes
  • Logging in is the same, and sometimes show failed login
  • The performance issue is noticeable if the connection reached more than 10-15 sessions and the most affected protocol is SFTP.

Product section

Serv-U Managed File Transfer & Serv-U FTP Server

Resolution

 
  • Reduce the number of virtual drives by reorganizing the directory structure to allow fewer levels of folders and a flatter structure
  • Check if Serv-U is using any network paths for logs, home directories, or virtual paths, and make sure they are reachable from the server. If these network paths are not reachable by the server, Serv-U will slow down or even not work properly
  • Move the folders to the Local drive of Serv-U by moving the data from remote devices to drives on the Serv-U server.
  • If user accounts have home directories on a network path, make sure those paths are reachable from the Serv-U server
  • Check the LDAP configuration and make sure that the LDAP host is reachable from the Serv-U server.
  • Limit the number of concurrent connections per user in Domain > Limits and settings > limits > Connection, 'Maximum number of sessions for user account'
  • Disable domain logging such as SSH command and replies, SSH detailed command and replies, HTTP command and replies. Example:
Screenshot 2023-09-12 130621.png
  • Move Enable Logging to File location from Network Shared to Local drive
  • Check the log size. If this is more than 500 MB, Serv-U might slow down. Make sure that the log files are rotating (Daily, Hourly, Weekly) depending on the amount of log data.
  • If there are Database Users, it is recommended to only have 100 users per User Collection as it is known (especially on older versions of Serv-U) for Serv-U to perform slowly when there are too many database users to parse on each collection
  • Verify the Serv-U version. There might be known bugs or issues with older versions of Serv-U and an upgrade to the latest version of Serv-U is a better recommendation
  • Check the server statistics via the Global > Dashboard page. Verify if the Serv-U server specs are compatible with the number of concurrent connections being handled by Serv-U. The recommended specs per connection can be found in the Serv-U® Distributed Architecture Guide found in this Serv-U Distributed Architecture and High Availability article
  • Inspect users directories that have a huge number of files that most likely causing performance degradation because it is taking some time to read all the files on it