Endpoint Protection

I have a number of pc's on the 11.0.5 Endpoint and I am seeing significant slowdowns and excessive disk activity on these machines. They are commonly Pentium 4 machines with 512Meg Ram and the problem occurs on both laptops and desktops. I am trying to make the case that it is because we need to upgrade the memory on these machines to at least a Gig of RAM and would like to know if anyone else is having these issues. I am including as much additional info as I can

 

Anti Virus         SEP Version 11.0.5
OS                    Windows XP Pro (SP3)
Config              Unknown (locked by the parent company)
Home Serv.    Located in Germany (1.5 T1 WAN connection)
Clients             Various US locations
Additional
Software          CA Unicenter, Microsoft Office 2003, Lotus Notes, Citrix Neighborhood

Hopefully, someone can give a better idea of what the actual system load requirement is for Endpoint both for the base memory and for protected system memory (like GUI as sometimes the clipboard will become corrupted and out of memory messages will appear when adequate memory still exists to run). Any help at all is appreciated.

We have a number of Pentium-4 PCs still on our network (either 2.8GHz or 3.0GHz) and we are just going through the process of upgrading them from 512MB to 1GB RAM ... so we are of the same mind ... we have also observed an unusual amount of disk thrashing when running AV scans or installing software.

1GB still slow. I suggest 2GB memory.

Apart from all the steps suggested above (which I strongly recommend) you can go through this link and check whether it can help you fine tune the settings atleast till the time you upgrade the physical memory.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2007102311173048

Thank you for this information. I have suspected that there was a reccomended configuration for the product but wasn't able to find the exact info I needed

You can increase the RAM to atleast 1 GB or install SEP with only Antivirus & Spyware feature.

What all else are you running to the system  1gb is what I would recommend as a base starting point for anything these days.   Thats good enough to run the OS and the AV software.  Do you want to run other things such as Office 2007 your going to be much happier with 2 gig and up for performance.    Our new system config here for next year is going to be 4 gig base as we are still on 32 bit OS but preping for 64 bit in the life cycle of thes systems.

This is wonderful. Now if I can just get the corporate headquarters to make some (or all) of these changes perhaps things will run better.

Thank you for the info it is helpful

Rick,

It would be great to have that latitude but the powers that be have mandated these requirements and I am desperately fighting for whatever I can get from them. This thread is really helping as it is a form of proof that I can use to help get more resources.

512 meg of ram is Windoze 95 specs! Wow, dark ages! XP should have a MINIMUM of 1gig if you want to do anything other than look at the pretty XP eye candy.
I found moving my home system from 1 to 2 gig was a big improvment. Even WEB browsing sped up, amazing enough, but like Bill the Gates himself said on a televised speech a few years ago "web browsing take more horsepower than anything else we do today".
Granted, that was at least 6 or 7 years or so ago, it's still pretty true. If I want to KILL my PC totally, open a few instances of any browser and hit eBay and a few sites like that - then check the processes using the most memory..........
Be that as it may, I'd not let your basic secretary limp along on 512 meg today. Besides, memory is pretty cheap in this day and age, compared to how it used to be............
I know from experience - my notebook is XP with 512 meg ram and there are evenings when I'm ready to totally toss it right through the big window sitting next to me and not even open the window first, it's so infuriatingly slow.

Just as a follow up to my earlier post, yes, 2GB of RAM would clearly be better, however in my case the Pentium-4 3.0GHz 512MB RAM PCs are obsolete ones that I am moving to our disaster recovery site.  Hence I really am only prepared to update them to 1GB RAM, as they will only be used in emergencies.  All the new PCs that I have been deploying over the past 6 months have 4GB RAM and are running either Windows XP SP3 or Vista Business SP2.  I am optimistic that some time next year I will be able to re-image them with Windows 7.  I do have a few legacy machines here, mostly older laptops, that still have just 512MB RAM in them.  They are getting very, very slow and tired now.  All of them are likely to be replaced with 4GB RAM machines within 12 months.

bkfriend ... the argument for your boss(es) is productivity based ... its NOT about technology ... adding more RAM will reduce wait times for all sorts of functions on those PCs, which over time will easily pay for itself (as adding an extra 512MB RAM to a PC is dirt cheap nowadays).

IF they are moving to a DR site and if they will only be used in event of an emergency, then I'd also only install AV and MAYBE firewall, nothing else.

Create a minium pakage and deploy it whereever there is slow down situation is.