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MID Server Sizing, Threads and Performance

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • What limits MID Server speed
  • What worker threads are
  • How SNWR kept scans under 3 hours

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: DNS, Proxy and Network-Zone Considerations. You learned how DNS, proxies and zones affect a MID Server.

1 The Problem: The Nightly Scan Runs Too Long

AC-06 says the nightly scan must finish in under 3 hours. In early tests:

  • The Mumbai scan took almost 4 hours.
  • The MID Server’s memory was near full.

🎯 The problem: The nightly scan runs too long.

👉 The fix: Size MID Servers properly and tune threads carefully.

Table of things that affect MID speed.
Figure 1. What affects MID Server speed.

2 What limits speed

  • Host CPU and memory.
  • The memory the MID Server’s Java process may use.
  • The number of worker threads.
  • How many addresses you scan.
  • Slow networks and slow targets.

Key term: Worker thread

One job the MID Server can run at the same time. More threads mean more parallel work, and more memory.

3 Tuning safely

  1. Measure first: how long, how much memory.
  2. Remove addresses that don’t need scanning.
  3. Add a cluster member if needed.
  4. Raise memory, then threads, a little at a time.
  5. Measure again.

⚠️ Heads up: Too many threads can run the MID Server out of memory and make it slower. Change one thing at a time.

4 Project Clear View: How We Implemented It

📍 Situation: The Mumbai scan took almost 4 hours.

🧭 Decision: Tune step by step and measure each change.

🛠️ Steps we took:

  1. Removed unused addresses from the range.
  2. Used both Mumbai MID Servers through the cluster.
  3. Raised the MID’s Java memory, then threads slightly.
  4. Measured after each change.

✅ What we verified:

  • The scan now takes 2 hours 10 minutes.
  • Memory use stays below 75%.

📁 Evidence: A tuning record in the runbook. AC-06 is tested in Quality Assurance.

5 Quick recap

  • Speed depends on host size, MID memory, threads, range size and the network.
  • Measure before and after each change.
  • Change one thing at a time.
  • Too many threads can make things worse.

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 What’s a worker thread? Show answer

One job the MID Server can run at the same time.

2 What did SNWR change first? Show answer

Removed unused addresses from the range.

3 How long does the Mumbai scan take now? Show answer

2 hours 10 minutes.

Nice work! SNWR’s nightly scan fits its window. 🎉
Next up: Hardening the MID Server

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